A Matter of Souls
by V. Shalyr
Summary: It's been more than a year since the accident that put his entire class in the infirmary, and Zeref has given up on ever finding a partner and going on missions like the other students at the DWMA. That is, until a new student invites himself into his life and they get swept up into the battle against a new witch. Soul Eater fusion, eventual NatsuxZeref
1. Conversations with Nobody Important

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Fairy Tail or Soul Eater

**Pairing(s)**: Natsu Dragneel x Zeref (eventual), mentions of Gajeel x Levy (established)

**WARNINGS: AU ,** **eventual** **Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

**AN**: This is a fusion with Soul Eater (i.e. Fairy Tail characters growing up in the Soul Eater universe).

* * *

**A Matter of Souls**

**By V. Shalyr**

* * *

**1\. Conversations with Nobody Important **

**Library **

It just figured that Natsu would meet one of the most peculiar people at the Academy while doing his detention in the library. His life was full of strange coincidences like that.

The boy was sitting at one of the library tables, tucked away behind several towering bookshelves. Stacks of books littered the tabletop before him, all but hiding him from view. If it weren't for the fact that one of the books Natsu was looking for happened to be in one of those piles, he might never have seen the boy at all.

Actually, upon closer inspection, it seemed as though practically _all_ the books he needed were here, including the volume that the stranger was currently reading.

Sensing his scrutiny, the boy looked up, and Natsu took the chance to ask, "Are you here writing a paper for detention too?"

For a long second, the boy just stared at him.

"No, I'm not," he said finally.

Natsu shrugged and gestured at the books. "Mind if I sit here? I need to use some of those."

In response, the boy hesitated then pushed the stack towards him.

"Great, thanks."

Natsu dropped into the chair across from him and pulled a notebook and a pencil from his backpack before letting it fall to the ground. "Are you a student? I don't think I've ever seen you around."

"Not exactly."

"I thought that was a yes or no question."

It took another long few seconds for the boy to respond to that. "I suppose you could say that I work here."

It was an interesting statement considering he didn't look any older than Natsu.

"Yeah? Doing what?"

He couldn't be a teacher. If he were, Natsu would have seen him in class. The faculty at the DWMA wasn't that large.

"Research for Lord Death."

"About what?"

"About souls."

Well, that made sense. In a school where one tenth of the student population got routinely dispatched to help fight evil and collect the souls of criminals, it was no surprise that someone on staff would be spending time studying souls. Still, the guy seemed a bit young to be researching serious stuff like that.

"Are you a Meister? Or a Weapon?"

It was a safe assumption that he was either one or the other, since almost everyone at the Academy was. Then again...

"Or does that not apply to you?"

"I'd rather not say." The boy marked the place on the page he'd been reading with a finger and gave Natsu a slightly perturbed frown. "I'm sorry, but why are you talking to me?"

"What, I need a reason to talk to you?"

"Don't you?"

A little taken aback, Natsu took a moment to consider this. Did he need a reason?

"I'm just curious who you are is all," he said finally. "That's normal when you meet someone new, right?"

The boy contemplated this for awhile, possibly trying to decide if it was, in fact, normal. After several moments, he sighed and shook his head.

"Maybe, but you shouldn't bother. I'm nobody important."

Natsu didn't think that could be true. Everybody was important in their own way, and if he worked for Lord Death, he could hardly be considered nobody. But before Natsu could say any of this, the boy gestured at the books.

"Didn't you say you were here to write a paper?"

Natsu sighed. "Yeah, but talking's way more interesting than reading about Weapon history. I swear the teacher went out of his way to give me exactly the kind of work I'd hate most."

Namely reading about things that happened so long ago that he really couldn't see the point of them and then having to write about it all.

Dark eyes shifted from Natsu to the books around them, almost all of which were on that exact topic, conveying without words how much the boy disagreed with him.

Natsu rolled his eyes in answer. "It's all ancient history. I just don't see why I should care that some witch was responsible for creating Weapons seven hundred years ago."

"Eight hundred," the boy corrected him. "It was eight hundred years ago. And the witch's name was Arachne."

Natsu tapped his notebook with his pen. "Hey, you know a lot about this subject, right? Would you mind helping me with my paper? I'm not asking you to help me with writing it. Just tell me about this whole history stuff."

"Will you go away and leave me alone when you're done?"

"Do you want me to?"

The boy opened his mouth, probably to say yes, but, again, hesitated. He looked at Natsu then at the books then back at Natsu.

"I don't know," he said finally.

And he sounded so lost that Natsu felt almost bad for disrupting his day like this, except that if the answer was "I don't know", then maybe this disruption wasn't such a bad thing for him after all.

"So how about it? Please? There's no way I'm going to read all these books and write my paper by the end of today, and it's not like the teacher said anything about me having to read the information myself. I swear I'll listen extra carefully. I'll even buy you dinner too."

"You don't have to do that."

"It would just be my way of saying thank you. After all, everyone has to eat, right?"

Natsu watched the other boy struggling to decide how to respond to this current situation with more than a bit of amusement and came to one conclusion. Whoever he was, the person across the table from him really had to get out more. He'd clearly been spending too much time in the library, and that couldn't be healthy for anyone.

.

**Errand **

It was a week before Natsu saw the strange boy again, although not for lack of trying. He'd dropped by the library with such abnormal frequency that his classmates had begun to ask him if something was wrong. Briefly, Natsu entertained the thought of asking his friends to help him search. But in the end, he discarded the idea. The boy probably wouldn't react well to a bunch of strangers scouring the school for him, not with the way he'd reacted to Natsu initiating a simple conversation.

When he finally did run into his target again, it was purely by accident. One of the teachers had asked Natsu to help her carry a bunch of new textbooks to a different classroom. Halfway down the wide, sunlit corridor, he spotted a familiar figure exiting a room a few doors down—an office, if he remembered correctly. Natsu's eyes widened. He set the pile of textbooks on the carpeted floor and charged down the hallway, shouting.

"Hey! Wait!"

The dark-haired boy jumped, startled.

"It's you," he said when Natsu stopped in front of him.

"Yeah, glad you remember me. I forgot to introduce myself last time. I'm Natsu."

The boy gave Natsu an odd look, caught somewhere between confusion, surprise, and trepidation. "You're talking to me again."

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Way to state the obvious. So anyway, what's your name?"

The hallway was quiet around them, although faintly, they could hear the murmur of distant chatter and laughter. Natsu waited patiently for the other boy to think about this, glad that there was no one around to interrupt them.

"Zeref," he said finally.

"Great. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Natsu grinned. "So, you up for dinner today? I still owe you for helping me out. I went back to the library after I turned in my paper to look for you, but you weren't there."

"I'm kind of busy today."

"With what?"

Zeref gestured vaguely with the notebook in his hand. "I'm observing some of the first years' training sessions."

"Is this about the research you do?"

"Basically. And one of the teachers asked me to keep an eye on a few students for him. They've been having trouble, and he wanted an extra pair of eyes. Something about their soul wavelengths being unstable lately. I'm headed there now."

"Give me a second, and I'll walk with you," Natsu said.

He ran down the hallway. Zeref watched him retrieve the pile of textbooks then jog back, and part of him wondered why he waited.

"These are going to a classroom not too far from the usual training rooms," Natsu explained as they started walking. "If you're helping to monitor these students' wavelengths, does that mean you can see souls?"

"In a way."

"Are you a Meister then? That's normally a Meister ability, isn't it?"

"...I'm a bit atypical."

"So then you're a Weapon."

Zeref frowned uncomfortably down at the notebook in his hands. Ahead of them, a group of students hurried past on their way to class. He paused and waited for them to move out of the way before continuing forward.

"Does it matter?"

Natsu shrugged. "Don't know. It might matter. And even if it doesn't matter now, maybe it'll matter later."

"I see."

Zeref pondered this for awhile in silence.

Eventually, Natsu continued, figuring that he might as well introduce himself a bit more, "I'm technically a Meister, but I still haven't found a partner, so I'm not sure I can say that really. I wanted to work with a Weapon with fire-type abilities, but I only know of one at this school right now and she's already got a partner."

"Why fire?"

"Because it's the coolest element there is!"

"Oh."

Well, Zeref supposed that was as good a reason as any.

"Anyway," Natsu added, "I've kind of given up on that idea. Right now, I really just need to find someone I can actually work with. My friends have all started going out on missions, and it's annoying not being able to go too. I mean, I've done some info gathering and reconnaissance type stuff, but nothing really serious."

"If you're looking for a partner," Zeref said, turning left into another corridor, "you're wasting your time talking to me. I can't work with anyone."

Natsu laughed a little sheepishly. "Well, I can't say it didn't cross my mind, but that's not going to make me stop talking to you. You're obviously super smart, and you're... well, kind of interesting."

"Strange, you mean."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Isn't it?"

"Of course not. Anyway, "strange" is pretty normal here in this city."

"I suppose that's true."

Ahead of them, the corridor ended in another hallway lined on one side with floor-to-ceiling windows. The training rooms were towards the right, while the regular classrooms meant turning left.

They paused at the intersection, and Natsu asked, "So when are your observations over?"

"I believe the class is about one and a half hours today. Why?"

"Dinner, remember?"

Natsu didn't give him the chance to protest. Instead, he bid the other boy a cheerful "see you later" and headed off to finish his errand.

.

**Dinner **

Zeref had no idea why he was going along with this. Since the incident a year ago, he hadn't been able to bring himself to look any of his classmates in the eye, and he'd barely spoken to any of the students in other years. He didn't attend classes, because he didn't have to. He was good at learning on his own, so he planned out his own studies and simply checked in periodically with the teachers. As far as academics were concerned, he was far ahead of his peers anyway, and when he wasn't studying, he mostly worked with the staff, a majority of which were adults. Lord Death had told him that he ought to try harder to interact with the other people his own age at the school. But... well, he hadn't been very motivated to try.

What was the point?

"_There are some people who like to be alone_," Lord Death had conceded when he'd asked this. "_But I think you need a few more life experiences before you decide that for certain. Who knows? Maybe you'll find that it makes the world a bit more... fun. So give it some thought, 'kay?"_

Frankly, it was a little bizarre sometimes how fatherly the shinigami could be. Especially with the skull mask he always wore. Then again, Lord Death did have a son who was about the same age as many of the students here.

Fun. Zeref wasn't sure he knew what "fun" was really, or if he'd even recognize it if he experienced it. He didn't think he really _wanted_ it, to be honest. All he wanted was for the world to feel a little less dark.

Maybe that was why he was here.

"Hey, you still with me? You don't mind pumpkin cuisine, do you? The pumpkin ravioli and the pork and pumpkin dish is pretty famous, but I know some people don't like pumpkin."

Zeref blinked and refocused his eyes on the menu Natsu was waving in his face. "I don't mind."

"Okay, but let me know if there's something else you like better. There's no such thing as a kind of food I don't like, so I really don't care. This place is just nice because they give you giant portions of everything you order. It's really good value for money." Natsu lowered the menu and quirked an eyebrow at him. "You zone out a lot, you know?"

"I don't usually eat with anyone," Zeref said by way of explanation.

Now that Natsu mentioned it, there really were a lot of other students at this restaurant. Every table and booth was occupied by young people dressed in one or another of the Academy's uniforms.

The decor was a lot cozier than Zeref might have expected, had he known that the theme of the diner revolved around jack-o-lanterns. Rather than the vivid orange of the average pumpkin, most of the restaurant had been furnished in shades of warm mahogany and a creamy orange more reminiscent of cantaloupe. Grinning lanterns made carefully from fabric and wire hung at intervals from the ceiling, and the porcelain, pumpkin-shaped salt and pepper shakers smiled at them like they were happy to be of service.

Zeref had no idea what to order, so Natsu ordered for the both of them before pushing one of the two mugs of... something that the waitress had given them across the table to Zeref. The liquid was... orange. There were tiny pumpkin-shaped somethings floating in it.

"Try it. It's not nearly as sweet as it looks," Natsu told him. "It's a signature here, and they give everyone a cup when you're here for dinner. Those are marshmallows, by the way. It's crazy how far some of the shops around here will go to stick with their theme, but I guess it's one of the cool things about this city too."

Zeref tilted the mug, watching the miniature marshmallow pumpkins bob about in the orange cream before taking a tentative sip. It was actually pretty good, kind of mellow and not all that sweet. Although he supposed that if he was really averse to pumpkin, it would be a different story.

"You like living in this city then?" he asked after a moment.

"Yeah, I'd say I do. How about you?"

"I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it."

Natsu didn't push the subject.

"Living here's been interesting with all the weird stuff that goes on," he said instead. "I traveled a lot with my dad when I was a kid, and Death City's definitely got most places beat in strangeness."

"Is that why you decided to attend school here?"

"Nah, I mostly enrolled here because I like fighting. I'm good at it, and Dad said I might as well do something useful with it."

"That's very straightforward."

"Guess so. And you? Did you have a particular reason for studying here?"

Zeref hesitated then said, "I was—_am_—interested in Magic Tools, so the Academy was really the only place I could go."

"I think I've heard the term somewhere, but I have no idea what they are."

"I suppose you could think of them as magical technology, or enchanted items. The earliest and most powerful Magic Tools were created by a wizard called Eibon centuries ago. Some of them were said to be able to change the world as we know it."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?"

"Of course. But it's really very fascinating." Zeref stopped.

Natsu was grinning.

"You get really excited about these things, huh?"

And the boy was definitely excited, Natsu could tell, even though he got excited in such a quiet kind of way. He seemed less uncomfortable too, or at least he wasn't casting anxious, sidelong glances at the other tables anymore.

Good.

Natsu settled down and got to the business of coaxing his half-reluctant dinner companion into a proper conversation.

.

**Rumors **

"Zeref, huh? Is that the stranger from the library that you told us about?"

"That's right. He should teach our history classes. He's way better at it than the history teacher we've got."

Lucy propped her chin in her hands. She was facing the front of the large classroom, but her gaze was unfocused and elsewhere. The teacher hadn't arrived yet.

"I think I've heard the name before."

Natsu raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

His friend Lucy was part of the school paper, so she tended to be well caught up on student news. Around them, their classmates chatted amongst themselves, the noise masking their conversation.

Even so, Lucy lowered her voice when she continued. "He was in the class a year ahead of us, I think, but he dropped out after only a few weeks. No one seems to know exactly why, but the rumor is that something went really horribly wrong the first time he transformed. One of the other students in the journalism club wanted to write about it, but she was told to leave it alone."

Natsu frowned. When Zeref had told him that he couldn't work with anyone, Natsu hadn't thought it was that serious. Of course, after spending so much time with the boy over the last few days, he should have known better. Zeref was definitely the kind of person who took most things in life extremely seriously.

Natsu was still thinking about this when he dropped by the library with his history homework later that afternoon.

Zeref was completely unlike anyone Natsu had ever met before or ever thought he _might_ meet. He was also, Natsu had quickly decided, a genius. He could explain almost anything in any subject that Natsu didn't understand in a way that made it seem simple, and he couldn't quite seem to understand why other people couldn't do the same. Zeref wasn't arrogant or anything. He was just honestly confused when other people couldn't keep up with him, and it was honestly kind of cute. It was convenient too. Natsu's grades were most definitely improving. It just seemed like such a waste that Zeref isolated himself in the library most of the time. And it was somehow all because of something that had happened over a year ago.

Maybe he should have left the issue alone, but Natsu was curious. How bad did an accident regarding an out-of-control ability—not an uncommon occurrence at the Academy by any means—have to be for someone to withdraw like this, and with the support and consent of all the teachers, no less?

And so, after they'd discussed the homework questions Natsu had had doubts about, he made sure no one else was around and told Zeref what he'd heard.

Zeref stilled for a moment, about to take a book from the top of the stack by his elbow. After a second, he finished setting the book down in front of him then said quietly, "I suppose I should be grateful there isn't more gossip about it."

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

"Not really."

"All right then."

Zeref hesitated. "You're... not going to keep asking?"

Natsu shrugged. "It's your story. If you don't want to tell it, it's your business. Doesn't mean I'm not _curious_, mind you, but you've got the right to decide."

Silence descended—but a comfortable silence. Natsu moved on to his science homework while Zeref started to read the new book, a notebook open on the side in which he occasionally wrote a note. Natsu could have gone home or dropped by one of his friends' places to finish his schoolwork, but there was something about the quiet of the other boy concentrating on his studies that made it easier to concentrate on his own studies too. In any case, Natsu had found that he got way more work done in way less time this way.

Natsu was just putting his math homework away, the last thing he needed to do today, when Zeref suddenly spoke up.

"I don't really remember what happened."

Natsu looked across the table, but Zeref's gaze was still fixed upon his book. He didn't interrupt, just waited patiently for Zeref to continue.

"Apparently, we put our entire class in the infirmary. It was a miracle that no one was killed, at least that's what the teachers said. The classmate I partnered with, I don't remember his name, but he had no memory of what happened either. We ran a few tests, and we determined that it was something to do with my abilities and not his. I haven't attended any classes since then. Dr. Stein offered to try working with me, but I said no."

That name sounded familiar.

"Dr. Stein? Do you mean the teacher?"

"That's right. He's one of the best Meisters to ever graduate from this academy, and since his soul wavelength is very flexible, he can sync with different Weapons relatively easily."

"Yeah? So why'd you say no?"

"He... makes me uncomfortable. He likes to take things apart, to understand them. I prefer to put things together. Create something new. Honestly, I think he's really just interested in studying me."

Natsu thought about the mad scientist of a teacher and the last few lessons Natsu's class had had with the man, which had consisted mainly of dissecting a series of dead animals.

"You're probably right," Natsu said.

There was another long silence. Zeref finally glanced over at him, searching his face—for what Natsu wasn't sure. Natsu held his gaze steadily until Zeref looked away again.

When the other said nothing more, Natsu cleared his throat and said lightly, "So... I have a theory test coming up. Mind helping me study? Maybe over dinner?"

Zeref relaxed at the change of topic, thought for a moment, then nodded.

.

**Connections **

Zeref picked up the manila folder that Sid had left on the corner of his office desk and leafed through it.

"Are these the cases you wanted me to look into?"

"Yeah, those are the ones. Thanks for your help with all of this."

"It's no trouble."

Before Zeref could leave, Sid added, "I'm glad to see you're finally making friends."

The boy paused in the doorway and glanced back over his shoulder. Although he didn't say anything, his confusion was obvious.

Sid Barrett, the Academy's only undead teacher, rubbed thoughtfully at his chin while he regarded his former student. Sometimes, Zeref wondered why it didn't feel more strange that the man had died and then gone right on teaching afterwards. But then, Sid had changed so little after his death that it hardly seemed to matter.

"You've been spending a lot of time with Natsu Dragneel, right? It's good that you're connecting with other people your own age. We've been concerned."

"Why?"

As far as Zeref was concerned, it wasn't like he had suffered any from pursuing his academic studies alone.

The zombie shrugged. "It can be dangerous, spending too much time in your own head. We need other people to help us grow, and sometimes to keep us sane. Besides, you never seemed that happy to be alone, if you ask me. I could be wrong, of course."

He paused and caught Zeref's gaze as though asking without words what he thought of this.

And it was surreal for Zeref to realize that yes, Natsu was a friend, wasn't he? At the very least, they genuinely enjoyed each other's company. They were very different people, but somehow, being around Natsu was comfortable. Easy even.

Somewhere along the way since the incident that had landed all his classmates in the hospital, Zeref had subconsciously given up on ever being able to connect with anyone. But Lord Death was right; he wanted this. Being alone was okay for awhile, but he'd missed having people to talk to.

"No," he said finally, "I think you might be right."

Zeref took a step then paused again, half asking and half wondering aloud, "Is this really okay?"

Sid rubbed the back of his neck, baffled. "What, making friends?"

Zeref hesitated. When asked like that, his worries seemed rather silly.

"Never mind," he said. "It's not important."

He stepped out of the office. But as he started down the hallway, he thought he heard Sid call after him, "Just give everything a chance and see where it goes."

* * *

**TBC... **

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**AN**: Okay, maybe a bit weird, but this story's been stuck in my head for awhile, and I've always really liked Soul Eater. Some of it can be really silly, but the world also has a lot of really interesting philosophical concepts. Anyway... I'm not posting this as a crossover because there will only be minor appearances by the original Soul Eater characters.

I wanted to put up the next chapter for Things We Dream, but unfortunately, I'm still stuck about three fourths of the way through. So I decided to post the first chapter of this story instead, since it seemed to have turned out fairly well.

.


	2. Island of Dissonance

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Fairy Tail or Soul Eater

**Pairing(s)**: Natsu Dragneel x Zeref (eventual), mentions of Gajeel x Levy (established)

**WARNINGS: AU ,** **eventual** **Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

* * *

**A Matter of Souls**

**By V. Shalyr**

* * *

**2\. Island of Dissonance **

**Sickness **

Natsu Dragneel was fast becoming a common sight in the school library, as was the sight of Zeref actually conversing with someone. Normally, the librarian would have frowned upon people talking so frequently in this space that was meant for quiet contemplation, but it was nice to see the usually solemn, dark-haired boy actually opening up to someone. And since the two always made sure to keep their voices down, the staff decided to leave them alone.

Today, however, Natsu had only just sat down at his friend's table amidst the shelves when one of the librarians arrived with a worried furrow between her brows and a note in her hands.

"It's for you," she said, handing it to Zeref. "I believe it's urgent. I'll hold on to your books for you at the front desk. You can come back for them when you have a chance."

Puzzled, Zeref thanked her and unfolded the small piece of paper.

As soon as she had gone, Natsu asked, "What is it?"

Zeref lifted his gaze from the paper, a frown on his face not unlike that worn by the librarian. "My presence is requested at the infirmary."

"Anything in the note say I can't come with?" Natsu asked.

He was reaching for his backpack even before Zeref said, "No, I don't think so."

Neither of them spoke as they made their way through the halls. Regular classes were out for the day, and the building was relatively quiet. The few students they passed were whispering amongst themselves, their body language broadcasting anxiety and concern. These were all, Natsu informed his companion, EAT class students—the segment of the student population that actively carried out missions on behalf of the academy and Lord Death.

Both Natsu and Zeref stopped dead in their tracks when they reached the open infirmary door, struck by a sense of wrongness that pervaded the space beyond like an invisible miasma.

"So you feel it too, huh? That's good. I thought you might."

They pulled their gazes away from the two occupied hospital beds to look at the pale-haired man seated backwards on a swivel chair between the two cots.

"Dr. Stein," Zeref greeted. "What happened to them?"

The doctor and scientist made a noncommittal sound in his throat. He tilted his head to one side, glancing at the two unconscious students, then reached up absently to turn the head of the giant screw that protruded from somewhere around his left temple.

Zeref winced internally at the series of clicking sounds it made. He'd always wondered about that screw, but had never found it in himself to ask the man about it. It couldn't possibly _actually_ pass through the man's head, could it? Frankly, Zeref wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"We're not sure," Stein said finally. "They were just leaving their last class of the day when they fainted in the halls. According to witnesses, it happened at about the same time and without warning."

Squeaking around in his chair, Stein snagged a clipboard from the bedside table and glanced over it briefly before holding it out towards Zeref. "Take a look for yourself."

Zeref accepted the proffered charts and moved to stand by the side of the bed nearest to the door. While he skimmed the contents, Stein turned his attention to Natsu.

"I heard you two started hanging out. So it's true. I'm a little surprised."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"Hmmm." The infirmary lights gleamed off Stein's round glasses. Before he could give an actual reply, however, Zeref lowered the clipboard and spoke.

"I don't understand. This basically just says that they're sleeping."

"That's right," the older man agreed. "And not waking up."

"Have they been out on any jobs together recently?"

"As a matter of fact, yes, they have. Their last assignment took them onto a cruise ship traversing the Atlantic. Although as far as we're aware, they wrapped up the mission without any trouble, and nothing particularly noteworthy occurred while they were onboard. Since then, however, we've received a few odd reports from sailors in the area. Something about people sighting an island, except no one's actually been able to reach it. It could be a hallucination, or... Well, moving islands aren't the strangest thing this academy has seen."

Drumming his fingers on the back of the chair, Stein continued. "Lord Death would like to see you—both of you. There should be a few other students heading to the meeting now, so you should probably get going. Oh, and don't forget that feeling when you first entered this room. I dare say it'll be important."

When the two left, they thought they heard the doctor mutter, "I wonder what they're dreaming about."

**Helicopter **

Lucy didn't think she'd ever been on such an uncomfortable flight. The helicopter was spacious enough that the six passengers weren't crowding one another, but, well, it was still a helicopter. It only had so much room to offer, and the strange, dark-haired boy who had arrived on the airstrip with Natsu all but radiated discomfort with having them all so close.

He wasn't really what Lucy had expected. Not that she'd spent much time imagining what Natsu's new friend might be like. But if she had given it any thought, given what she knew about the boy's history, she was pretty sure she would have pictured... something else. Certainly, he didn't look like someone who had caused his classmate to go crazy and put more than a dozen students in the infirmary.

In any case, the atmosphere was a far cry from the anxious excitement that had pervaded Lucy's last long flight, the one that had brought her from her hometown to Death City to begin her high school career. Come to think of it, this was the first time she'd been given a mission this far from the school after joining the academy. She'd never actually intended to be part of the EAT class or to go on missions at all. She'd only enrolled at the DWMA because it offered great connections and future career prospects, a fact her father had impressed upon her since she was old enough to understand what any of that meant. He might not approve of her desire to become a journalist, but he approved of the school, and so attending had proved a happy compromise.

What would he think of what she was doing now, Lucy wondered. She still hadn't gotten around to telling him about her change in classes.

Gray cleared his throat from where he sat beside his partner Wendy in the front row of seats. "So, any of you know what exactly we're supposed to be looking for?"

"We were told to focus on gathering information about the island," Lucy said. "Assuming we're actually able to reach it. They actually tried sending some of the teachers, but they could never manage to land on it. Only one of the newest teachers got even close. I think they theorized that you have to be under a certain age."

"So that's why it's us and not some of the grownups," Gray concluded. "I wondered about that. And I suppose that's why they're sending you, huh?"

This last question was directed at the boy in the back row next to Natsu.

Zeref turned away from the window to look at him. After a long moment, he simply nodded.

"That doesn't explain what you're doing here though," Gray said, turning to Natsu. "Are you sure you're supposed to go with us?"

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Of course I'm sure. I've done plenty of info-gathering missions."

That was actually true, Lucy mused to herself. He might not have a Weapon partner yet, but Natsu was extremely observant and had great instincts. It wasn't the first time he'd been sent on an assignment to collect information.

From the pilot's seat, Loke, a student in the class two years ahead of them, cleared his throat. "We should be getting close. Get ready."

Without another word, the six of them retrieved their backpacks and jackets and prepared to disembark.

Lucy retied her hair to make sure she got al the loose strands then turned to squint through the window beside her. Far below them, the ocean was a gray-blue expanse splotched here and there with shadows that made her think of monsters lurking just beneath its surface. She shivered and wished that she hadn't read quite so many stories about ghost ships and haunted islands.

"I think I see something," Wendy murmured in the tense silence. "Ten o' clock. Is that it?"

Following her directions, Lucy spotted a black smudge on the horizon. As they drew closer, it resolved into a crescent-shaped wedge of land like the shadow of a perfect crescent moon.

"It fits the description," Loke announced, sounding unusually grim. "Remember, you're not to engage with anyone or anything if you can help it. I'll be standing by in this helicopter in case we need to leave in a hurry. You've all got a communicator, right? I know you've all got your phones, but those communicators are designed to work even in intense magical fields. Professor Stein thinks that might be why we lost communication with those other aircrafts when they passed over this area."

A murmur of confirmation rippled through the helicopter.

Behind her, Lucy heard Zeref murmur, "Natsu, do you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

Zeref didn't reply right away, and just as he did so, the helicopter swept down towards a deserted stretch of beach on the edge of what appeared to be a dense forest. Lucy's attention was caught by movement out of the corner of her eyes, and she squinted towards the line of trees. For a second, she thought she saw something pale and ghostly dart behind a tree trunk. She opened her mouth to point this out to the others, but before she could say a word, a powerful gust of wind slammed into the side of the helicopter and sent it reeling back into the sky. Lucy hit the side of the copter with a pained gasp. Around her, the interior of the helicopter was a cacophony of thuds, crashes, and curses as everyone grabbed onto whatever they could to stop themselves from being rattled about the cabin. The entire aircraft shuddered and veered again, tossed about like a ragdoll caught in a sudden storm. She could hear Loke swearing in the driver's seat, which was bizarre in itself since the older student considered himself a gentleman and was always careful with his language.

"It feels like something's got us!" he called back to them. "I can't get us back on track."

"We're going to crash!" Gray shouted.

Even as he spoke, the inside of the helicopter grew dark. Something—a mountainside? A tower—loomed in the windows, racing towards them way too fast. Lucy's heart leapt into her throat. Natsu was shouting something, but she could barely hear him over the roaring in her ears. And then the door of the helicopter had been flung open and the wind crashed through the space like a tsunami.

The last thing Lucy remembered was grabbing for Levy's hand as the floor slid away from beneath her feet.

.

**Island **

When Zeref opened his eyes again, he found himself staring up at a clear blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds like he would have expected to find in some child's storybook. Strange. Hadn't it been overcast earlier? He'd barely had any time to ponder this when his sight of the sky was eclipsed by a familiar face framed by messy, salmon-colored locks.

"Great, you're awake," Natsu said, relieved. "I was getting worried there."

Gingerly, Zeref sat up. "What... happened?"

There was grass all around him—a field of some kind—and trees beyond that. In the distance, the mountains that they'd seen from the helicopter jutted up towards the heavens, dark against the otherwise bright expanse.

"We got caught up in that weird storm. At least we all got out of the copter before it crashed. Not sure where the others landed, but I think I saw a town or something on our way down. Are you hurt?"

Zeref tested his limbs carefully. He'd probably have bruises, but nothing seemed broken or sprained. "I don't think so. You?"

"I'm fine," Natsu assured him, getting to his feet. "This whole island seems, I don't know, wrong somehow though."

Zeref knew what he meant. It was like an echo of that same sense of wrongness that had plagued the infirmary room back at the academy, like static noise just below the threshold of hearing. It made the hairs prickle on the back of Zeref's neck and set his nerves on edge. He wished he'd said no to this assignment, but really, if there was an age thing preventing adults from reaching the island, he was the only research-oriented staff member who qualified.

"We should get moving," Natsu said, holding a hand out towards him. "I was thinking we could start by heading over to the town. Unless you have somewhere else you want to go first?"

Zeref looked at the offered hand for a moment, hesitated, then accepted it and let the other boy help him to his feet. "If there really are people living on this island, it seems like as good a place to start as any."

Besides, the chances were high that their other companions would start by making their way there as well.

Zeref was quiet for awhile as they started through the woods, just listening to Natsu mutter to himself as the other boy tried to recall what he'd seen of the island as they were falling. It was strangely comforting, and eventually, Zeref gathered enough of his thoughts to ask, "How do you normally handle assignments like this? I mean, I've never had any team missions before."

"It really just depends," Natsu said, pausing ahead of his friend on the leaf-strewn trail to wait for him to catch up. "Honestly, we didn't get a lot of details on what we're supposed to be looking for, which makes things a bit more complicated. I'm assuming we'll eventually split up to search the island, but again, maybe we won't—if it seems like that would be a risky thing to do."

Here, Natsu shot him a sheepish grin and added, "I've really only been on one or two of these kinds of missions myself. I'm usually solo. Like I said, I don't get to do the typical missions that everyone else does because I haven't got a partner yet. I can fight fine on my own, but if there's actual supernatural stuff involved, regular weapons just aren't good enough."

"Don't you usually have to practice with someone in your early academy classes?"

Natsu made a face. "Yeah, I didn't really end up getting along with anyone well enough to work together on an official assignment. And for the most part, there are way fewer Weapons than Meisters, so..."

He trailed off and shrugged.

"I see."

Zeref fell quiet again, averting his gaze from his companion back to the trees and shrubbery on either side of the path. A tiny part of him wondered, just for a moment, what it would be like to actually be able to work with a partner like the other students at the academy did. But he'd given up on that idea so long ago that it was difficult to let himself think about it now. It was easier to just not hope for things that would probably never happen. Besides, he had no wish to put someone else through the trouble of trying to learn to sync with him. Considering the strain it placed on the few Meisters he'd worked with when they were trying to figure out where the problem lay, he would never ask it of anyone, much less someone he was starting to really like.

"You're thinking too much," Natsu said, interrupting his thoughts with a hand on his shoulder. "If you're worried about getting along with everyone, just give it time, all right? They're all good people. Promise."

Zeref glanced sidelong at him and met piercing green eyes far more serious than Natsu's cheerful tone might have suggested. Those eyes observed him with an intensity that would have disturbed him from anyone else. But Zeref had gotten used to that look over the time they'd spent together and didn't comment on it. Instead, he simply nodded. It really shouldn't surprise him anymore that the younger student could read him so well.

"Hey, want to hear about some of the jobs I've been on?"

Zeref nodded again, and Natsu launched into an animated account of his visit to a port city where a witch was rumored to be attacking sailors. Zeref settled down to listen. Uncomfortable thoughts could wait until this job was over.

By the time the first rooftops came into view, Natsu had switched from talking about his adventures abroad to telling Zeref about their current teammates.

"A lot of us were in the same classes our first year and we did a lot of training together," Natsu said. "Levy was originally going to partner up with her boyfriend, but unfortunately for him, that didn't work out."

"Their soul wavelengths weren't compatible?"

"Nah, that wasn't it." Natsu sniggered. "As far as soul wavelengths go, they're fine, but he has no idea how to handle her Weapon form. I guess she's pretty unusual that way, because she turns into a quill pen that you can use to sort of—write certain things temporarily into existence."

"That sounds very interesting," Zeref said, meaning every word. He would have loved to be able to write things into being, even if it was temporary. It sounded like a fun and flexible kind of ability, maybe not the best for hardcore battles, but there were plenty of other people who could do that.

"It is interesting," Natsu agreed. "But Gajeel hates writing, so that makes working with Levy really hard for him."

"Ah, I suppose that would be problematic."

It was a little sad, but also, honestly, kind of funny.

Zeref started to ask Natsu a question, but movement up ahead made them both tense. They stopped walking, scanning the path in front of them and the woods to either side. Almost immediately, Natsu tapped his companion on the shoulder and inclined his head towards one of the trees to their right.

There was a girl standing mostly obscured by the trunk, Zeref realized with a start. From how she had positioned herself, it was difficult to tell if she was trying to hide her presence or not, but her gaze was fixed upon them with thinly concealed curiosity. Her eyes were silver, Zeref noted with some surprise, and there were silver ribbons woven into her chestnut hair.

Natsu raised his voice and called out to her. "Hey, are you from the town?"

Instead of answering, the girl ducked back behind the tree trunk, and they heard the light crunch of fallen leaves beneath her feet as she darted away.

"That was weird," Natsu muttered.

Zeref nodded in agreement, and they made their way past the first few houses on the outskirts of the town in silence until they heard familiar voices calling their names.

"Natsu! Zeref! Over here!"

.

**Townsfolk **

"This place seems totally normal," Gray said, frowning from his seat at the restaurant table. "It's like a lot of the small towns I've been to. Well, aside from the fact that most of the people here washed up after a shipwreck and how they don't have any hotels I suppose. Guess they don't get a lot of visitors."

"There's the tower," Lucy said quietly. The tea was cooling rapidly in her cup. She hadn't taken more than a sip from it.

"You mean the one at the foot of the mountain?" Natsu asked, curious. "What's unusual about that?"

"That's the thing," Levy spoke up from beside her partner. "None of the townspeople we talked to could see it. Or they see it and just pretend that they don't. They told us we were probably suffering from the crash—you know, like hallucinating."

Zeref turned his head to look out the window. He could make out the tower in question clearly, its tall, narrow silhouette rising above the distant treetops.

"I think the helicopter went down near there," Wendy said uneasily. "I wonder if that's where Loke is."

Out of the seven people who had been in the aircraft, the older student who had piloted the vehicle was the only one who had not yet found his way to the island's only human settlement.

Wendy and Gray had arrived first, something about her and Gray being able to use the wind to travel more freely if Zeref remembered correctly. Lucy and Levy had ended up nearly giving a farmer a heart attack when they'd stumbled out of the woods, bruised, bettered, and covered in brambles. They'd landed close to the town, but had been forced to take a long detour in order to avoid the attentions of a large bear. Natsu and Zeref had arrived last, both because they had taken their time traversing the woods and because they had landed the farthest away.

Natsu wolfed down the rest of the grilled salmon on his plate then said, "Well, at least we've still got most of our supplies. We can buy anything else we need from the townspeople and head over to check out the tower first thing in the morning."

A murmur of agreement rippled around the table. The sky had already started to grow dark, and none of them thought it wise to go traipsing through those woods after nightfall. Sure, this town looked normal. But they knew better than most how looks could be deceiving.

"But if they don't have any inns, are we going to have to camp out?" Wendy wondered aloud.

Lucy shook her head. "That's one piece of good news at least. The farmer we told you about said we could camp out in his barn if we don't mind sharing the space with a couple farm animals."

"It might smell a bit," Levy added ruefully, "but it's better than being outside."

Most of the time anyway, especially in suspicious territory.

Aside from the two cows napping in their pen, the barn in which they arrived an hour later was relatively empty. Zeref looked up the ladder to the loft, taking in the bits of hay he could see above and the pungent odor of large livestock and dry grass. This was the first time he'd slept anywhere other than a proper bed in an actual room. The thought didn't bother him. He just wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

"Do you want to do the first watch with me?" Natsu asked from the doorway. "We're all taking turns, but if you're tired, you should sleep. I know you're not used to doing work like this."

"I'm okay," Zeref said, moving back to join the other boy outside.

The windows of the house next door cut squares of light through the evening twilight. Even through the thin curtains, they could just make out the silhouettes of the farmer and his wife as they moved about the kitchen, cleaning up after their own dinner. With Natsu's help and the aid of a few empty barrels, both boys were soon on the barn roof where they had a clear view of the area around them. If they stayed low, away from the roof's peak, it would also be difficult for other people to spot them through the dark.

"Do you think we need to tell them about that girl we saw in the woods?" Zeref asked quietly, his gaze drifting from the glowing windows to the shadowy line of trees marking the edge of the woods.

Natsu shrugged. "I don't know. I figured it was just some kid from this town playing in the forest. But now that we got a look at the people here, their clothes aren't anything like what she was wearing. She looked more like a noble's daughter than a regular townsperson."

Zeref agreed. There was a silence, and then Zeref said, "I suppose this situation would fall under too risky to split up?"

Natsu chuckled and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Sure looks like it."

Zeref frowned at his joviality. "Isn't that a bad thing?"

"Well," Natsu drawled. "I guess it depends on how you look at it. It's more dangerous, sure, but it's also not going to be boring."

"Sometimes, boring is good," Zeref murmured.

Natsu only shrugged. "Let's wait until this is over before we decide that."

.

**Black Tower **

They had breakfast in the same restaurant in which they'd eaten dinner the night before, both because the food had been reasonably appetizing and because it turned out to be the only proper restaurant in town. That seemed pretty strange to them too, but after the bacon, eggs, toast, and other dishes had been laid out upon their table, none of them thought more about it. Nor did they spend much time wondering why they were the only patrons in the restaurant. It was barely the crack of dawn after all. Come to think of it, it was amazing that the restaurant was open at all, considering how early it was.

Zeref finished his own meal earlier than the others and excused himself to look around the town. He expected Natsu to find him when it was time for them to depart, but to his surprise, it was Lucy who eventually called out to him while he was retracing his steps through the main town square.

"The others are still eating, if you're wondering," she informed him as she approached. "But they'll be done soon, so I said I'd come get you."

"Thank you," he said, waiting for her to reach him before starting back through the streets towards the restaurant. The girl must have gone through quite a bit of the place herself while searching for him. He felt a bit sorry for having put her through the trouble, but apologizing seemed strange.

"So," she said after awhile, breaking the silence. "Did you find anything? I mean, I don't know what you were looking for either, so maybe I should start there."

A slight frown made its way onto Zeref's face as he replayed his walk through his mind.

"There's no cemetery," he said finally.

Lucy stumbled in her surprise then righted herself and rubbed at the goose bumps on her arms. "That's kind of a creepy thing to notice. Are you sure they don't just burry the bodies somewhere else?"

"Maybe," Zeref conceded, but it was clear in his voice that he doubted it.

"I'm not sure I want to know what that implies," Lucy muttered then sighed. "But I suppose we're going to find out whether we want to or not."

So it was with no small amount of wariness that the six students set out, leaving the relative safety of the town and striking out back into the woods. Charting a path for the tower was relatively easy. The thing was so tall that they never lost sight of it, and the rest was just about forging a straight line from the town towards it and the foot of the mountain where it had apparently been built.

They spoke little during the journey, their attention focused more on scanning their surroundings than on facilitating conversation. It was well into the afternoon by the time they left the shelter of the trees and found themselves faced with a wall of ebony black stone stretching up and up until it swept inward to form what they knew to be a pointed roof.

A thorough search of the building's perimeter uncovered no doors or windows of any kind. What they did find, however, were countless magical runes carved into the massive slabs of stone the formed the base of the gigantic structure.

"Do you think that means there's a witch living here?" Lucy asked nervously.

The rest of them had gathered around Zeref, who was crouched examining the markings on a section of wall. From what they had learned in their classes at the academy, they could tell that these markings were definitely magical runes. And Witches were the main, if not the only, people who used such runes in the current era.

Gray was the one who answered her. "Considering all the odd occurrences related to this place, I'd say the chances of that are pretty likely."

"I think I might be able to let us in," Zeref said, lifting a hand towards the wall. But before his fingers could touch any of the markings, a pale green light emanated from a string of the complex characters, and a section of the wall simply faded away.

"Uh, did you do that?" Natsu asked.

"No," Zeref said uneasily. "It happened before I had a chance to try anything."

Wendy tensed and narrowed her eyes. "Which means that someone wants us to go inside."

It was an unsettling thought, but there wasn't much they could do about it. They were, after all, here to find things out. And if there really was a witch here, it was their responsibility to capture her.

It would have been nice though, if she hadn't known they were coming. Then maybe they wouldn't feel so keenly as though they were walking into a trap.

.

**Voice **

"Now this _is_ an interesting development, although I suppose I should have expected that ridiculous school of yours to come poking around sooner or later."

The voice echoed through the large, dark chamber, although no one was there to speak.

In silence, the six students scanned the room where they had found themselves. The doorway had closed again behind them, leaving them in a gloomy semidarkness broken only by a faint glow that seemed to emanate from the very walls themselves. As far as they could tell, they were the only people in the room. A single, spiral staircase rose from the center of the floor and vanished into the ceiling.

"It's not very polite, you know," the disembodied voice continued. "Barging into someone else's home like this and not introducing yourselves."

"Aren't you the one who let us in?" Natsu asked, raising his voice.

The speaker laughed. "Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't."

"Frowning towards the ceiling, Gray spoke up. "Two of our classmates are unconscious right now. We think they dropped by this island. I don't suppose you can tell us anything about that?"

The voice laughed again, and this time, there was a distinctly mocking edge to it. "Maybe I can, maybe I can't. How about we play a game? And if you win, I'll give you your answers. But if I win, I'll take something from you instead."

"What kind of game?" Lucy asked uneasily. "And who are you anyway?"

"Oh, just a girl with a lot of time on her hands these days," the reply came, echoing around them and laced with far too much amusement. "And as for the game, why don't you come upstairs and find out?"

They exchanged wary looks, but before any of them could answer, the voice added, "Oh, and, in case you were wondering, I found a friend of yours wandering around my forest. He's up here too, although I'm afraid he didn't turn out to be very interesting."

Zeref glanced at the stony expressions on the others' faces, something cold settling in the pit of his own stomach. He wasn't sure what that meant, but somehow, he doubted it was anything good.

"Don't take too long," the voice sang gleefully, and as the last echoes of it died away, a light fell from the space in the ceiling to illuminate the stairs. This was followed by a change in the chamber, like some presence that had been present had departed.

For a second, none of them said a word.

Then Natsu cracked his knuckles and said grimly, "Guess we don't have a choice. Ready to go?"

"We should probably be ready to fight," Lucy said, glancing at her partner, who nodded in return.

This was followed by two flashes of light, and both Levy and Gray disappeared.

Zeref blinked and stared at the long, folded fan that Wendy had resting across one shoulder. It looked as though it had been crafted from multiple sheets of thin, semitransparent ice, and there were rose designs sprawling across it in swaths and lines of frost. Natsu had told him that the other boy became something made of ice, but Zeref had been imagining... something different. According to his friend, the fan wasn't cold for Wendy to hold, but that had not been true for some of the other students Gray had tried to work with his first year at the academy. It sounded like finding someone that you could actually work well with had been a difficult journey for a lot of people.

"What?" Gray's voice asked a bit defensively, and for a moment, Zeref thought he could see the boy's ghostly reflection within the ice.

"I'm just surprised," Zeref told him. "I've never met anyone who turned into a fan."

And, well, it was a very pretty fan. Practically an ice sculpture. The kind of thing you saw in art galleries.

"You really shouldn't be so defensive all the time," Wendy told the fan as she started up the stone steps. "You know you have some great abilities, and swords and stuff are boring anyway."

Her Weapon grumbled something in reply.

Zeref watched them go then shook his head and followed. It seemed like all the Weapons in their group were a bit atypical.

.

**Dolls **

As they emerged onto the second floor of the tower, they thought at first that the vast, circular room was full of people. They tensed, prepared for an attack, but nobody moved. Upon closer inspection, they realized that what they had assumed were people were in fact dozens upon dozens of wooden dolls.

"Creepy," Lucy whispered. The glittering pen in her hand murmured in agreement.

Natsu stopped by the statue of a soldier and pulled the long spear from its motionless hands. "I'll just borrow this. This guy won't be needing it anyway."

Zeref looked around at the dolls, wondering if he should find something to defend himself with as well. But the thought of getting any closer to the displays than he absolutely had to sent prickles of trepidation skittering up and down his spine. Something about the room bothered him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. Maybe it was just how lifelike the dolls appeared. They were incredibly realistic, and every single one was different.

Noticing his hesitation, Natsu liberated a second spear from another doll and passed it to him. "Here. Do you know how to use one of these?"

"Not really," Zeref admitted.

Natsu grinned wryly. "No problem. Just stay behind us when you can, and if anything unpleasant gets too close, poke it with the sharp end."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, this made Zeref chuckle.

Natsu's grin widened, and the two of them hurried to catch up with the others.

It wasn't until they stepped past a cluster of dolls dressed as pirates that they realized why the room felt so wrong.

Lucy spotted it first, and her stifled gasp had them all turning to look at a pair of dolls standing at the foot of the stairs leading up onto the next floor. One was a man in a plain, brown tunic and leggings, a long-handled shovel resting across his shoulder, and the other was a woman holding a rake and wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat. Although they were standing as still as statues and their eyes were utterly devoid of emotion, all of them easily recognized the farmer and his wife who had offered them the use of their barn for shelter.

The students halted, uneasiness creeping up around them.

Zeref blinked a few times and adjusted his vision, shifting the way he looked at the world around them. He sucked in a sharp breath and tightened his hold on the spear.

"What is it?" Natsu asked, adjusting his own grip on his borrowed weapon.

Zeref breathed out slowly and turned in a circle to survey the rest of the room. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, but they nonetheless heard every word in the muffled silence. "They have souls."

As though his announcement had broken some kind of spell, the stillness that had pervaded the room evaporated. Zeref ducked when a pirate doll swung a rapier at his head, and Natsu struck the doll in the chest with the butt of his spear, sending it sprawling backwards into another one of its fellows. Both dolls crashed to the floor, but other dolls moved forward to take their place.

To their right, Lucy had tied the feet of several dolls together with a rope of yellow light, but then a javelin thrown by a doll further back in the crowd forced her to jump back.

"Lucy, duck!" Wendy shouted.

The blond girl ducked, and Wendy sent a gust of wind over her head that caught the next volley of javelins and flung them away like matchsticks.

Natsu pulled Zeref out of the way of a woodsman's axe and severed the doll's arm at the shoulder with the blade of his spear. His next hit removed the doll's head from its neck, but rather than crumpling to the ground, the doll simply grasped the axe handle with its remaining hand and attacked once more. Even more disturbing was that, if they looked carefully, they could see a ghostly replica of the doll's missing arm and head where the absent appendages had been, giving the overall impression of a creature that was half corporeal manikin and half disembodied spirit.

Natsu cursed and called over to Wendy, "Can you maybe just freeze them in place? Then we can get up onto the next floor."

"I can," she called back, fending off a child manikin wielding a baseball bat. "But I need the rest of you to get out of the way."

"The stairs," Lucy said, scrambling towards the staircase. But she was blocked by the dolls of the farmer and his wife.

"They're the only ones who didn't move to attack us," Zeref said, glancing from the pair of dolls at the foot of the steps to the mass of dolls milling about the rest of the room. "Maybe that's the goal here, to get to the next floor. If that's true, they might not follow us if we can get past the two guarding the stairs."

"Well, it's worth a try," Natsu said, charging past him. ""We were headed that way anyway. Wendy, we'll leave the other dolls to you, okay?"

"Got it."

Zeref ran after Natsu, intent on getting out of the blue-haired Meister's way. When a wave of cold air rolled over them, however, he couldn't help but chance a glance back. It wasn't often that he got to see his fellow students fight in earnest. Ice sheeted across the floor before the giant fan in Wendy's hands, coating the dolls in its path. Some of the dolls were frozen in place, but others thrashed free of the imprisoning cold, and Wendy sent another wave of ice in their direction. With two coatings, even the extra determined manikins were temporarily disabled. It looked like Wendy would be fine.

Not for the first time, Zeref wondered what kind of things he might be able to do if he dared to test his own abilities. He knew, of course, that he could be extremely dangerous, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. But Stein had suggested once that his abilities might change if he ever found someone he could properly work with. The scientist had described what he'd seen of Zeref's powers as "wildly unstable" and possibly a bit corrupted. Zeref had been curious about it in the past, but now... He snuck a look back at Natsu, who was fighting with the farmer and the farmer's wife, buying time for Lucy to create a complex net of chains large enough to tie them up. Maybe, just maybe...

As soon as the two dolls guarding the stairs were down, the students scrambled past them up the steps, Wendy bringing up the rear and moving backward to make sure none of the dolls broke free or followed them. But while a few of the manikins tore themselves out of the ice and staggered to the steps, they stopped at the bottom and did not attempt to ascend in pursuit of them.

.

**Puppetry **

The second flight of stairs seemed to wind on forever, curving gently inward in an endless, upward spiral lit only by the faint, unnatural iridescence that clung to the walls. The others murmured quietly amongst themselves, but Zeref hung back, half distracted by what he'd seen on the floor below and half reluctant to intrude on their conversation. They were worrying over Loke, the older student who had piloted the helicopter, and wondering about the dolls and the townsfolk. Zeref knew what that sense of wrongness that permeated the island and the academy's infirmary room was now, and that knowledge made it easier to pinpoint the sources of the unpleasant feeling.

There had been something wrong with the souls in those dolls, quite apart from the fact that dolls weren't supposed to have souls at all. They hadn't been tainted, not like the souls of those who had committed evil deeds, but they had been unstable and distorted somehow. Zeref wondered if it was possible for a soul to be in pain. It was a disturbing thought.

"How are you holding up?" Natsu asked, falling back to walk beside him. "You didn't get hurt back there, did you?"

Zeref shook his head.

"That was crazy, wasn't it? I had no idea that someone could do that with dolls."

"That's actually not that unexpected if you think about it," Zeref said. "Necromancers can animate the bodies of the dead using souls that they manipulate. The concept seems quite similar."

Natsu considered this. "Huh, I guess you're right. But I thought those tended to be corrupted souls. I didn't think even witches could just make any old spirit do whatever she wanted."

That was a good point, Zeref thought. All souls contained a mixture of good and evil in them, and if a person knew how, he or she could manipulate the balance of such characteristics within a person to cause them to behave in certain ways. In the past, witches and other beings prone to mischief had found ways to provoke chaos and encourage criminal behavior by using tools to strengthen the influence of various types of Madness. Fear, anger, and a desire for strength were all powerful factors that could drive people to do terrible things, but that wasn't the same as actually controlling a person.

"It's probably more complicated than that," Zeref said finally. "We'd probably know more if I could get a closer look at one of those manikins."

"Do you think it's possible that all the people in town were actually dolls, and we just didn't notice?" Natsu wondered aloud.

"If that's true," Zeref replied, "then it's possible that we've already come into contact with some enchantment without realizing it. Because I'm almost positive that at least one of us would have noticed if everyone we talked to was made of wood and fabric."

Natsu let out a snort of laughter.

Ahead of them on the staircase, the other four fell silent to eavesdrop on the conversation going on behind them. It was the first time they'd heard Zeref talk this much. Until then, it had been difficult for them to picture him as simply another academy student. But listening to him now, it became just a little bit easier. Maybe it shouldn't feel like a relief, but it did.

They weren't sure how long they spent climbing those steps. They were all far too tense to take a break for snacks, especially when several attempts to contact Loke via the communicators they'd been given yielded no results. It felt like forever until the staircase leveled out onto a small landing with a set of double doors set into the far wall.

The image of two praying mantises had been carved into the doors, and their red glass eyes seemed to shine as the students approached. Lucy eyed the giant insects' scythe-like arms with trepidation. The things looked disturbingly realistic, so much so that she half expected them to scuttle off the doors.

"Ready?" Wendy whispered.

The others nodded, and Natsu moved forward to push the doors open while Wendy and Gray—perhaps the best in the group at general defense—prepared themselves in case of attack.

The first thing they heard when the doors swung silently inward was someone clapping.

"Oh, very good," the voice that had greeted them upon their arrival echoed around them, rebounding from the vaulted ceiling. "That was very nicely done. You'll be wonderful additions to my collection."

Unlike the floor below, this one was almost entirely empty. Emerald green flames burned in braziers set at intervals along the walls, which in turn had numerous mirrors hung upon them so that the chamber felt even more vast and empty than it already was. The applause had come from a girl, who was standing beside what they immediately recognized as the broken remains of their helicopter. And slumped in the driver's seat was—

"Loke!" Lucy gasped. "What did you do to him?"

"Oh, no need to worry about him. I was going to add him to my collection too, but he turned out not to be suitable." The girl waved a hand dismissively and fixed them with her silver stare. "The rest of you though, I think the rest of you will be just fine."

"What are you talking about?" Natsu demanded, eyes narrowed.

Both he and Zeref recognized the girl as the same one they had seen in the forest.

The girl who was probably not quite a girl only smiled a disconcertingly sunny smile and snapped her fingers. The sound of it echoed surprisingly loudly in the large chamber, and almost at once, several green and ghostly figures materialized from the air beside her.

Their eyes were drawn at once to two figures in the middle of the group.

Two very familiar figures that they had last seen occupying twin hospital beds in the DWMA infirmary. Two figures that swiftly became one figure as the form of the shorter changed to that of a trident, which the taller swung up into a battle position.

The girl's smile widened at the expressions on their faces, and it was no longer a friendly expression.

"Have fun! And try not to die. It won't work if you die."

.

**Decisions **

_This is bad_, Zeref thought.

He hung back, sticking close to the wall beside the large mirrors as he edged along the perimeter of the room, not wanting to get in the way. This fight was nothing like the one in the room of dolls. The ghosts seemed to shift between corporeal and non-corporeal forms depending on where the light within their bodies was most concentrated. That fact alone would have made these phantoms difficult opponents, but they were also far more skilled than the manikins from before. Perhaps that was to be expected, considering at least one duo were DWMA students. It wasn't hard to imagine that the other phantoms were facsimiles of other individuals with above average skills in combat.

The witch, for witch the girl almost certainly was, had moved towards the center of the room where she could direct her ghosts more effectively, and Zeref kept darting glances at her and then at his teammates as he made his way towards the helicopter. He reached the aircraft without being noticed, and pulled open the opposite door so he could reach Loke without having to move closer to the fight. There was blood on the dashboard. Zeref steeled himself, half afraid that the boy might be dead after all, then reached out to shake him by the shoulder.

"Please wake up," he muttered, shaking the older student again when there was no response. "Come on, this is a terrible time to be unconscious."

Loke groaned.

A wave of relief washed through him, and he shook the boy's shoulder again. "Are you all right? What did she do?"

Loke lifted his head, coughed, and put a hand to his temple. A trickle of blood stained the corner of his mouth.

"What…?"

"We came to find you," Zeref said quickly. "Can you walk? I think we need to get out of here, because—"

He was cut off by Lucy's scream. "Wendy!"

Jerking his head up, Zeref peered through the windshield at the battle. Wendy was on the ground, apparently knocked out cold, and Gray was crouched next to her, shielding her from attack as best he could while he tried to bring her back around. Natsu was protecting the both of them, but despite being a skilled fighter, the spear he was wielding was only ordinary wood and steel. There was a reason DWMA students didn't work with ordinary weapons on missions. And Lucy, the blond girl was being steadily overwhelmed by a crowd of phantoms, and it didn't help that her team's abilities weren't as offensive.

"The witch," Loke gasped, his voice scratchy in his dry throat, "her scimitar, don't let it cut you. You have to warn them—"

He broke off into another fit of coughing.

The witch's scimitar? Zeref hadn't even noticed the long, curved blade in the girl's hands until Loke had mentioned it. And no surprise, since the blade itself was almost transparent, edged only with faint glimmers of green light not unlike the bodies of the ghosts or the flames in the braziers along the walls.

There was no time to ask Loke for an explanation. Zeref worried at his lower lip, watching the witch move towards Natsu and his two classmates, and he made a decision that he desperately hoped he wouldn't regret.

"Loke?"

"Huh?" Loke blinked, his head still spinning and nausea trying to claw its way up his throat.

Zeref didn't wait for more of an answer. Tugging the necklace he wore from around his neck, he pressed it into one of Loke's hands, words spilling from him in an urgent rush, "Take this. Don't lose it, and don't move. Pretend you're still unconscious. I'm... I'm going to do something, but when the enemy is gone, you'll have to use this."

On reflex, Loke curled his fingers around the coil of delicate, silver chain. "What? What are you—?"

"When it's safe, just throw it at me," Zeref said, cutting him off. And then he was on his feet again, ducking out from the helicopter, and racing across the room towards Natsu, not caring this time if he drew attention to himself. If he could distract the others' attackers, all the better. . A blast of green energy flew at him from one of the apparitions, but he ducked and threw himself forward to avoid it, catching Natsu's eye as he did so and reaching out to grab for his hand.

And abruptly, the ambience of the chamber shuddered and _shifted_.

.

**Black **

The next five minutes were the longest five minutes of Lucy's life. A heavy blow from one apparition had thrown her hard into the wall, for which she would be eternally grateful. Because that meant she was on the ground and out of the way when Zeref disappeared and the world around them went dark.

Looking back, it was difficult to remember specific details from what happened. There was the black fog that seemed to surround them all and the flash of green light off the edge of a blade that she couldn't quite see through the whirl of shadows. But if someone were to ask her, she wouldn't have been able to say what form the Weapon in Natsu's hands had taken or how exactly the witch's scimitar ended up flying across the room to clatter against the far wall. The spear Natsu had been using before hadn't even been able to touch the semitransparent blade.

No, the only thing that she could recall with utmost, unsettling clarity was the way Natsu froze for just a split second before launching himself at their opponents with a ferocity that startled his teammates just as much as it surprised the enemy, and whatever he was fighting with had cut through even the insubstantial forms of the witch's phantom servants with ease. Of course Lucy knew there were Weapons that could do such things, but knowing and seeing were not the same. And Natsu, there was something odd about Natsu. He tore through the apparitions that the witch redirected towards him and immediately went after the witch herself.

For as long as she lived, Lucy would never forget the look in the witch's silver eyes when the gleam of a blade flashed towards her throat. The girl jerked back at the last second, flinging her arm up, the glimmer of green light wrapping about her hand and forearm. Whatever she was trying to do, Lucy never found out, because Natsu's attack sheered through the magic like it was nothing and left a long gash diagonally from the witch's wrist to her elbow. Her scream echoed through the chamber, but somehow, Lucy could still hear the splatter of blood upon the floor, black in the eerie light of the braziers. His next strike just barely missed her back, because she'd turned and darted across the room. Without sparing a look back, the witch flung herself at one of the mirrors upon the walls. Its silver surface rippled and she vanished just as Natsu lashed out and the entire mirror shattered.

Maybe Lucy should have felt relieved, but instead, all she felt was a spike of anxiety as Natsu turned back towards them. Was the room getting even darker? Lucy's fingers curled reflexively around the pen by her hand, but other than that, she didn't quite dare move. Getting up seemed like a terrible idea, but staying on the ground didn't seem much better. Before she could make up her mind about what to do, movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Lucy turned her head just in time to see Loke dash out from the helicopter. Natsu turned to face him, Weapon raised, and Lucy wanted to call out a warning—tell Loke to keep his distance. But then he threw out his hand and something thin and glittering silver flew through the air. Natsu made to swat the thing away, but the moment his Weapon came into contact with the object, the air in the room shifted again.

A flash of red light momentarily blinded them, and when it cleared, everything was still and the shadows that seemed to have been seeping through the room disappeared.

* * *

**TBC... **

* * *

**AN**: Thanks, it's always good to know someone's interested:)

As for whether I've ever considered doing a crossover one-shot collection, I can't say that I have. Are you talking about a series of things like this where it would be the characters living in different universes? Or do you mean a world-hopping type thing? Hmm...

.


	3. The Nature of Souls

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Fairy Tail or Soul Eater

**Pairing(s)**: Natsu Dragneel x Zeref (eventual)

**WARNINGS: AU ,** **eventual** **Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

* * *

**A Matter of Souls**

**By V. Shalyr**

* * *

**3\. The Nature of Souls **

**Consequences **

"Do you think it's safe to use these?" Lucy asked no one in particular, peering at one of the giant mirrors that lined the chamber walls. Her own reflection stared worriedly back at her. A bruise was forming on her right cheek, and the light from the braziers' brilliant green flames didn't exactly improve her complexion.

"Well, unless anyone else brought a mirror, we don't really have a choice," Levy pointed out, clambering back out of the wrecked helicopter with a blanket, which she draped over Natsu and Zeref.

Both boys were unconscious and had been that way since the end of the fight.

Wendy checked to make sure both of their pulses and breathing were normal before rounding on Loke. "What did you _do_?"

"I didn't do anything," Loke protested. With the bandages now wrapped around his head, he looked incredibly put upon. "He was the one who told me to throw that at him. It wasn't like we had any time for explanations."

"You mean Zeref?" Gray tilted his head so he could inspect the thin, silver chain still draped over the other dark-haired boy's hand without touching it. "That looks a bit like the necklace he was wearing."

"Yeah, he just gave it to me before he ran off." Loke rubbed at his throbbing temples. Thinking back over what he could remember of that moment through the pain in his head, his own words echoed back to him and his eyes snapped open again. "The witch's scimitar, were any of you cut by it?"

There was a brief silence in which the conscious members of the group tried to remember.

"I don't think so," Gray said slowly. "We were mostly fighting her ghosts, and on top of that, we mostly fight long distance. Why?"

"It's just—something she said when she captured me," the taller student replied. "I know this might sound crazy, but I swear she said something about collecting a piece of my soul. Only it didn't work, because..."

He shrugged uncomfortably. None of the others pressed him. Loke hadn't teamed up with anyone after falling out of sync with his original partner some months ago. It was still a touchy subject, but as the others understood it, it had involved far more than a typical argument.

Cautiously, Wendy made her way across the chamber to retrieve the transparent, green scimitar as Lucy breathed onto the mirror and drew a series of numbers upon the misted-over glass with her finger.

_4242-564. _

Light rippled across the mirror's surface. The reflection of the tower room faded into white and then into the image of a very different room with bright blue skies and a number of crosses integrated into the decor.

"Ah, we were hoping to get a call from you," Lord Death's cheery voice drifted through the mirror, still sounding lighthearted but more serious than usual. "You'll be glad to know that the two students who were hospitalized are beginning to show signs of waking up. So how are things on your end? Oh dear..."

He'd caught sight of the two unconscious boys, and he leaned forward a bit, presumably to see the pair more clearly through the glass. Lucy thought he seemed concerned, although how she could tell through the skull mask he always wore, she had no idea. Then again, the skinny figure in his black robe and skull mask had always been inexplicably expressive.

"Right, about that..."

"Let me guess," another voice spoke up, drawing her attention to the pale-haired man in the white lab coat. "Zeref actually used his Weapon form. The situation must have been pretty serious."

So Professor Stein had been visiting the Death Room. Well, maybe that meant they'd be able to get some real answers.

"Um, yeah..."

Lucy took a deep breath and launched into an abbreviated account of the last two days. Lord Death and Professor Stein listened intently as Wendy returned to the group with the witch's scimitar held carefully in her hands. When she was done, Stein adjusted his glasses and glanced at the scimitar with interest.

"Hmmm, well, that makes sense. When they woke up, those two students told us they'd been having a nightmare. About fighting people who reminded them of people they knew. I'm guessing that was you." He inclined his head towards the blade. "We'll know more once we've had a closer look at that. You should take it with you. Bring one of those dolls too, if you can."

"But what about Natsu and Zeref?"

"They'll probably be out for awhile. It's unfortunate, but at the moment, it's the consequence of Zeref's abilities. No need to be too concerned though. Zeref designed that seal himself. They should be good as new as soon as they regain consciousness. Of course, there's no telling how long that will take."

"We're sending a ship to pick you up and anyone else who wishes to leave the island," Death added. "It looks like the misdirection magic protecting the island disappeared along with the witch. We can talk more once you've returned."

Right.

After the mirror had returned to being just another mirror, the tower room felt even darker than it had before. The eerie stillness that now pervaded the tower only added to the uncomfortable atmosphere. They couldn't wait to get out of there.

.

**Ghost Town **

Wendy dropped from the sky to land in the middle of what she thought was the town square, her mouth open in shock as she stared around. "No way, this can't be the same place... Can it?"

"What was it Zeref was telling Natsu?" Gray asked, de-transforming and landing beside her. "That we'd probably have noticed if everyone here was made of wood and fabric?"

"Well, he also said it was possible there was other magic going on that we got caught up in without noticing," Wendy recalled. "It looks like he was right."

What only that morning had been a peaceful little town was now little more than a deserted ruin. The thatched roofs of several buildings had either fallen in or completely rotted away, and the windows that still had glass in them were covered in thick layers of dust. Dead leaves from the nearby woods littered the streets.

"I don't think anyone's lived here in decades," Gray muttered. "Ugh, do you think the food they served us at that restaurant was even real food?"

Wendy grimaced. "Let's not think about that. At least we know it was probably edible since none of us are sick. If any of us had food poisoning, we would have noticed by now."

And really, they had a bigger problem that they had to deal with right now. The two of them had left their friends at the base of the tower and come to borrow a cart that they could use to help transport their still unconscious teammates. Considering the state of the town, however, finding a usable cart could prove to be a challenge.

Gray sighed. "Well, better start searching since there's no one around to ask."

It took them longer than they liked, but they did eventually uncover a wooden cart that was still in working condition, sheltered from the elements in the remains of a storage shed. As they wheeled it back through the town, they noticed something else that made their skin prickle with goose bumps. Zeref hadn't seen a cemetery on his walk through the town, and now they knew why. Whatever enchantment had altered the appearance of the town had also hidden from view the graveyard that was situated not all that far from the farm where they had spent the night. The place had looked like a private garden the day before, but now, with the glamour gone, they could just make out the weatherworn headstones all but lost amidst the weeds and fallen leaves. On a hunch, they slipped through a gap in the fence where several of the boards had been broken to check the engravings upon each headstone that had not yet been eroded by time.

The most recent grave dated back almost an entire century.

Neither student commented on this. In silence, they returned to the cart and hurried on their way back to the others.

Later, when they made their way down to the rocky beach to meet the boat that had been sent for them, they told the crew that no, there was no one else who wanted to leave the island. They'd brought the dolls of the farmer and his wife with them, now limp and unmoving, and they left them on the side of the deck where the dolls wouldn't be in the way. The things were creepy, but on the bright side, their classmates back home had woken up. So after they delivered these dolls and the scimitar to their teachers, this matter should no longer be their problem.

Their teammates, on the other hand... With the dark silhouette of the island growing smaller and smaller as their ship pulled away from its shore, their worries focused increasingly on Natsu and Zeref. Sure, Professor Stein had assured them that the two would be okay, but they'd find that easier to believe _after_ the pair woke up.

"Did it seem like the whole room got really dark after he transformed to you too?" Lucy asked.

They'd put the two boys in the ship's cabin, and the rest of them were gathered about the benches out front. They'd offered to help the crew, but all the sailors had politely declined their assistance.

Wendy's brow furrowed. "I was unconscious, so I'm not sure what you mean."

"I know what she means," Gray said, eyes narrowed in recollection. "It was like the room was filled with shadows. I couldn't see what form he took at all."

They all looked at Loke, as the one amongst them who'd gotten the closest look.

"Sorry, but I was really more focused on Natsu," he said. "I'm pretty sure he didn't recognize me at all. And is he always that bloodthirsty when he fights?"

Bloodthirsty, huh? Lucy shivered. Was that the unsettling feeling that had surrounded that fight?

Levy glanced back towards the door of the cabin. "I wonder if that's what happened when he was in class."

There was a long silence while they all contemplated this, trying to picture in their mind's eye what that incident must have been like. And then, because they were a practical lot who'd faced their own share of problems and because Natsu was their friend and they'd seen the growing relationship between the two, they wondered if there was anything that could be done about it.

It was a long and quiet trip back to school.

.

**Echoes **

Waking up in a hospital bed was a bit of a novel experience for Natsu. Sure, he'd been in and out of hospitals often enough, but he rarely got injured so seriously that he actually had to stay the night. He hadn't been exaggerating when he'd told Zeref that he was good at fighting. So anyway, the point here was that waking up in the infirmary was... weird, especially since the last thing he remembered was fighting a bunch of ghosts in a tower room lit by green flames. After that... What had happened after that? He felt like there was something, but it was a struggle to bring the pieces into focus.

At the very least, he could safely say that they had probably won, or he assumed he wouldn't be waking up at all.

Levering himself into a sitting position, Natsu squinted through the startlingly bright lights. He easily recognized the academy's infirmary.

"Well, that didn't take quite as long as I thought it would."

Turning his head, Natsu spotted Professor Stein standing by a bed to his right. The pale-haired man had a wooden arm in his hands. The rest of the dismantled doll was piled upon the pristine bedcovers. All considered, the sight was... a tiny bit creepy, if not that surprising.

"What happened? How long was I out?"

"A little over a day," Stein replied. "As for what happened..."

He tilted his head so that the infirmary lights gleamed off the round lenses of his glasses. "I'd be interested to hear what you remember."

"Honestly, not very much," Natsu admitted.

"Hmmm, that's too bad. It's been awhile since Zeref consented to do any testing on his Weapon form. In the past, some Meisters would at least retain a few general impressions."

Natsu started and looked around wildly. He relaxed when he spotted Zeref in the infirmary bed to his left. The dark-haired boy still appeared to be unconscious.

"Now that you're awake, he'll be up soon too," the professor assured him, guessing at his thoughts.

With care, Stein set the arm down and picked up a wooden head. He turned it over to examine the markings carved along the inside of the hollow neck. If Natsu weren't so preoccupied, he would have found this more disturbing.

"What kind of general impressions?" Natsu asked, returning to the scientist's earlier words.

The older man shrugged. He seemed to be mostly distracted by the dolls, but Natsu knew better than to believe that Stein wasn't paying keen attention to their conversation.

"It varied," the man said. "We only did a handful of trials, because of the strain it put on everyone. But the last Meister he worked with said he felt like he was drowning in his own mind."

"Who was it? Is he still here?"

The corner of the scientist's mouth twitched. "Unfortunately, no. He was a teacher here, but was reassigned to fieldwork shortly after."

The boy looked disappointed, Stein thought with amusement. Depending on how this all panned out, the next few weeks promised to be very interesting indeed.

"Drowning, huh?" Natsu frowned, folding his arms across his chest as his forehead wrinkled in deep concentration.

Stein watched the expressions flicker across the boy's face out of the corner of his eye. He suspected that Natsu had remembered something, but before Stein could ask him any questions, the occupant of the other bed stirred. Natsu was up and over by the other boy at once, which was good because the moment Zeref sat up, he looked for him.

"Are you all right?" Zeref asked the younger student anxiously.

"Of course I am."

Zeref searched his face for several long seconds as if to assure himself of the truth of this.

Bemused by his concern, Natsu asked, only half serious, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Zeref hesitated. Before he could decide how to respond, however, Stein spoke again, startling him.

"We had a theory," Stein said offhandedly, "about why all the people Zeref here has worked with went a bit crazy. Of course, we weren't able to prove or confirm anything, since he refused to do any more testing..."

Natsu turned towards the scientist, too curious to notice the way the other boy tensed beside him.

"Well," the scientist drawled, his back to them in a deliberate show of feigned disinterest, "you know that there's a bit of Madness in everyone. We—or rather, I—theorized that perhaps some Weapons, like certain Magic Tools and spells, can bring that out in people. It would explain the extreme changes in behavior, and some of the residual echoes that we had to wait out. So do come back to the infirmary if you find yourself feeling particularly violent. Repercussions were different for different people, obviously. Judging from what your friends told me, if there are any echoes, that's what I'd expect from you. Oh, and I'll let them know that you're all right. They'll be relieved to hear that you two are awake."

Zeref murmured a "thank you" and slipped off his bed, excusing himself just as quietly.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

Natsu hurried after him.

Back in the infirmary, Stein listened to the sound of their departing footsteps. Yes, very interesting indeed. He was glad he'd recommended that the two of them be included on that island expedition.

.

**Unsound **

The two boys brushed past Sid in the hallway, and the zombie paused to watch them go before continuing on to the infirmary.

"What happened?" he asked, glancing from the departing students to Stein, now the only person left in the infirmary room.

"Nothing much. We just talked a bit about Zeref's—_unique_—abilities, and I shared some of my... thoughts."

"I see." The other teacher scratched his chin with the hand that wasn't occupied by a stack of file folders. "I was never the kind of man who coddled his students, but I do still have to wonder if pushing him to try and find a partner is the right thing to do. After all, whatever else he might be capable of, if his Weapon form really does amplify the Madness in his Meister as a side effect, perhaps it would be safer for everyone if he didn't do any fighting."

"Do you honestly think it's safer for someone with that kind of power to never even try learning to control it?"

Sid opened his mouth, hesitated, then sighed. "No, of course not."

That was the main reason people with the ability to transform into Weapons came to the DWMA. Learning to control their powers was crucial to ensuring that no one got hurt on accident.

And considering the increase in unrest all around the world lately...

"It's not like Madness is inherently bad," Stein mused, more to himself and the dismantled doll than to his fellow teacher. "And we all have to learn, to some extent, how to manage it. Personally, I think that what Zeref's particular abilities are make up only a fraction of the problem."

"A fraction?"

"That's right, and possibly not that large a fraction at that. The real issue is that he's afraid, both of his own powers and, consequentially, of reaching out to someone else. The Meisters who helped with our early tests too. They were afraid, at least a little, of what would happen."

"Basically, what you're saying is that a major reason you believe his powers go so out of control is because he hasn't been able to form a proper connection with anyone. And it's actually that instability that's causing the loss of control in both individuals."

"That's right."

Sid grunted. That was a vicious cycle to be sure. The more unstable the boy was, the less control he had over his own abilities, the more chaotic his mind became, and the higher the risk of both he and a potential partner being too afraid or too cautious to reach out.

Generally speaking, for two souls to match wavelengths with one another, they had to build a solid relationship with each other—or at least develop a good understanding. Compatibility wasn't a simple question, nor was it a static one. That was why some teams could fall out of sync with one another. And things went wrong when a Meister and Weapon tried to work together when they were no longer in sync, like when a Weapon burned its Meister's hands or suddenly became too heavy to wield.

You couldn't create a meaningful connection with anyone if you were always distancing yourself from everyone, even if it was because you were afraid to hurt them.

"Pity really," Stein added, more to himself than to his fellow teacher. "I thought it might be different this time seeing as he's started to open up to people more, but I suppose it wasn't enough."

With a sigh, the zombie walked over to place the documents he'd brought on the infirmary bed next to a wooden leg. "Well, I hope all this doesn't backfire. I'll lend them what help I can, but these are things that they'll have to work out for themselves."

"Indeed." Stein inclined his head towards the folders. "So then, I believe you were here to tell me something about that island?"

.

**Space **

Zeref sure could move fast when he wanted to, Natsu thought wryly as he chased the other boy down the long hallway. Seriously.

In the distance, Natsu could hear the muted murmur of voices that told him classes were in full swing. All the same, it was startling to round the corner into a corridor lit by bright, rectangular patches of sunlight from the tall windows to their left. The contrast with the dark tower full of puppets and ghosts was so stark that it was almost disorienting. Zeref must have felt the same, because his steps faltered and he stopped to blink out at the bright blue sky and the distant bustle of the city below the hill upon which the academy stood.

Natsu stopped beside him and followed his gaze out through the clear, glass panes before focusing all of his attention on Zeref himself.

"Hey, are you all right? You didn't want to ask him about what happened? With the island, I mean."

"The other students weren't there anymore," Zeref said. "I checked on our way out. So whatever happened, they're likely awake. The faculty will let us know if they want us to do anything else. I expect I'll be looking at those dolls too when Professor Stein is done with them."

"Yeah? Guess that makes sense."

There was an awkward silence, perhaps the first really awkward silence there had been between them since they'd had their first conversation in the library. Natsu didn't like it.

He opened his mouth to ask Zeref why he'd left the infirmary in such a rush, but the dark-haired boy spoke first.

"Are you going to class?"

"What?" Temporarily derailed from his original train of thought, Natsu took a moment to remember that yes, he was in fact a student here, and no, unlike Zeref, he wasn't exempt from regular classes. "Nah, looks like it's already noon. I'm going to go back to the dorms, hit the shower and get some sleep. What about you?"

"Probably the same."

"Do you live at one of the school dorm buildings? I don't think I've ever seen you around them."

"No, I don't." Zeref hesitated then said so quietly Natsu almost didn't hear, "I'm sorry."

Utterly confused by this sudden change in topic, Natsu asked, "What for?"

"For not thinking enough about the potential consequences."

Natsu's mind flashed back to the shadowy, tower room and the feeling of being surrounded by so much dark energy that he thought it would wash him away.

"We were all in trouble," he pointed out. "What you did helped save us."

"I suppose."

Natsu wondered why Zeref sounded so unconvinced. But before he could ask another question, Zeref had bid him a quiet good afternoon and slipped away down a branching hallway.

Natsu almost chased after him, almost called him back.

But...

Maybe it was the way their own experiences on the island had been cut so abruptly short that had left the two of them feeling out of sorts. If he was honest with himself, Natsu's head was still spinning with confusion too. So maybe he really should give Zeref some time alone.

Besides, Natsu had felt more than an almost overwhelming darkness back there in that tower room. There had been a strange kind of exhilaration too. Like the beginnings of a conviction that together, nothing could stand in their way.

.

**Reports **

"I guess it's our turn to haunt the library, huh?" Lucy joked as she slid into an empty chair at the table.

Gray sighed. "Don't remind me."

Books and old newspapers covered the tabletop. Wendy leaned back in her own chair, stretched, and surveyed the mess with a pensive frown.

"It's like a ghost story—a mysterious island that disappeared years and years ago with a town full of people who've been dead for more than a century."

Lucy shivered. "It's not _like_ a ghost story. It _is_ a ghost story."

"You can actually find the island on a few of the really old maps of the region," Gray told her, gesturing at one such example—the corner of which he was using as a makeshift bookmark in another text. "And you can find stories in collections of myths and urban legends from the area that talk about people falling into comas and never waking up."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence in which they thought about that eerie battle bathed in unearthly green light.

Then Wendy said quietly, "I wonder where the witch went."

It was the biggest question, really, but Lucy didn't really want to think about it. Didn't want to think about how many people's lives this witch had ruined over the centuries she'd been expanding her collection. Didn't want to be reminded that she was still out there somewhere and they might even have to fight her again.

"Hey."

The three students looked up. Loke met their startled gazes and held up a hand in a half wave.

"The teachers just told me that Natsu and Zeref are awake. They both went home at noon."

His three underclassmen sighed in relief, and a tension that had been simmering just under the surface of the quiet library eased away.

"We should go see them, maybe bring some dinner with us," Wendy suggested.

Her partner agreed. "I know a good place for takeout on the way to the boys' dorms."

"Er, are we allowed to visit the boys' dorms?" Lucy asked. After all, if she recalled correctly, the boys were banned from the girls' dorms.

"No idea," Gray admitted just a bit sheepishly. "But we have this garden courtyard area out front. I'm sure we could use the tables there for a picnic."

"Plan's settled then." Loke adjusted his glasses and turned away. "There are a few things I need to borrow from this library first, but I'll meet you all there at, say, seven sound good? Or six?"

"Let's go with six," Wendy decided. "We can't return to the dorms too late."

So it was that when six o' clock rolled around, the group of them had appropriated a picnic table in view of the collection of buildings that served as one of the campus's student dormitories. It wasn't quite as fancy as the one the girls had, but like most of the academy's facilities, it was high quality and well maintained. Still, there were pros and cons to living in the school dorms, and it was not unusual for students to move out and find places of their own.

"So you don't know where he lives?" Lucy asked, frowning.

"He ran off before I could ask," Natsu grumbled, tearing into a slice of pizza with more force than was necessary. He really should have asked Zeref for his contact information and address long before this, and it annoyed him that he hadn't thought to do so earlier.

"Well, no help for it I guess," Loke said with a sigh. "I was hoping to talk to the both of you."

"Huh?" Startled, Natsu turned to raise an eyebrow at the older student. "You were? Why?"

Loke hiked his glasses up the bridge of his nose and jerked his head towards the large bag of books on the bench beside him. "Later. I brought a few things I think you should read, but I'll explain when we're done eating. I don't want to risk spilling anything on library property."

.

**Restless **

Zeref shut his apartment door behind him and leaned back against it with a sigh. He felt off balance and more troubled than he cared to admit, but more than anything, he felt... Honestly, he couldn't put a name to it. Anxious maybe, or disappointed or guilty.

Or maybe just depressed.

The metal filing cabinets arranged beside the bookshelves that lined the far wall of the living room seemed to mock him, their slate gray and silver faces somehow managing to gleam despite the semidarkness. The lights were still off, and the only source of illumination came from the thin lines of sunlight that managed to slip through the gaps between the blinds on the windows. Zeref stared hard at the topmost cabinet, and part of him could almost believe that it stared back. Ugh, he was going to drive himself crazy one of these days.

It had been months since he'd last opened that particular filing cabinet, and part of him wondered why he still had it. No doubt Stein and the school had their own copies of the documents, so it wasn't like he had to store it himself and let it sit there reminding him of the fact that he'd essentially turned his back on his own problems. One of the teachers would probably say that he still had those documents because deep down, he wasn't ready to give up yet. Personally, Zeref suspected that it was mostly because he was an inventor and a researcher at heart, and he was loathed to actually throw away any information, no matter how much that information might trouble him.

Which brought him back to why he was feeling so unsettled.

"I'm not running away," he said out loud, addressing the cabinet. "Am I?"

Had Professor Stein and the other teachers really sent him on that mission because they thought the other students would need his expertise? Or had it actually been their way of trying to push him?

Zeref lifted a hand to touch the pendant on its silver chain around his neck. He could still vividly remember the conversation he'd had with the mad doctor when Zeref had brought the invention to him.

"_Well, this will certainly work if your goal is to contain your powers," _Stein had said, lowering the pendant and handing it back to him. _"Hmmm, there's no doubt that you're a genius at inventing things, but you're not actually very good at stepping outside of your comfort zone, are you?" _

"_Why do you say that?" _

"_Oh, nothing really. But you know... you can't force these things. You'll only be able to get so far trying to control those powers of yours from the outside in." _

"I know," Zeref said out loud to his empty living room, repeating the response he'd given Stein back then. And then he added, something he'd only thought to himself in the privacy of his own mind, "But I also know that it's not just about me."

Shaking his head and pushing those thoughts away, Zeref checked to make sure the front door was locked before resolutely turning away from the filing cabinets and traipsing towards the bedroom. He really needed to get some sleep. He could brood about all this later when his mind wasn't so exhausted.

* * *

**TBC... **

* * *

**AN**: Eh, I haven't actually decided yet what Zeref's Weapon form is going to be. I know I want it to be something with a blade, but other than that, I'm not sure.

.


	4. Who You Are, Who I Am

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Fairy Tail or Soul Eater

**Pairing(s)**: Natsu Dragneel x Zeref (eventual), mentions of Gajeel x Levy (established)

**WARNINGS: AU ,** **eventual** **Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read**

* * *

**A Matter of Souls**

**By V. Shalyr**

* * *

**4\. Who You Are, Who I Am **

**Hiding **

Zeref had been avoiding him, he was sure of it. Natsu had tried the library several times that week, going so far as to camp out there on a less busy Friday, missing all of his classes and earning himself yet another paper to write for detention from Sid. He wasn't that annoyed about it though, especially since the zombie teacher had also given him Zeref's home address, scribbled in the margins of the writing assignment prompt.

Which was why Natsu was now standing in front of the door to a second-floor apartment in a small but neat apartment building close to downtown on a rather beautiful Saturday morning. The hallway was one of those open ones and it was the front side of the building, so he had a clear view of the people passing on the sidewalks and the handful of small shops and eateries that lined the street. All in all, it seemed like a nice place—quiet enough, but still close enough to the major commercial districts to be convenient.

Hopefully, Zeref was home. But if he wasn't, the bakery across the street smelled amazing.

Natsu reached out and jabbed the doorbell. And then he hit it a few more times for good measure.

Zeref didn't usually get visitors on Saturday morning. Actually, he didn't usually get visitors at home at all, so he had no idea what to expect when he opened the door.

Maybe he should have been surprised to find Natsu standing on the other side of the threshold, but... honestly, he wasn't. The other student had already proven himself to be possibly the most stubborn and persistent person Zeref had ever met. It had only been a matter of time before he found him. Still...

"How did you get my address?"

"Sid gave it to me," Natsu said cheerfully. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Um, no?"

"Good. Grab your jacket. The weather's nice, but the breeze might be a bit cold."

When Zeref didn't move right away, Natsu wedged the door open with his foot and gave the other boy a slight push.

"Go on, hurry up. That bakery across the street looks like it should serve some great breakfast. Besides, I want to talk to you."

Natsu said this last bit with a lot more seriousness, and whether it was the tone or the words, it seemed to snap Zeref out of whatever daze he was in. He didn't look entirely happy as he went to get his jacket though, but that was okay. Natsu hadn't expected him to be. If Zeref had been keen on having this conversation, he wouldn't have been hiding out at home all week.

Five minutes later, the two of them were seated at one of the square tables beside the bakery's front windows. Zeref picked at the glazed donut on his plate—recommended to him by the cashier. It was good, but he didn't have much of an appetite. Natsu had no such problems. In addition to the donut, he'd ordered a sandwich, a salad, and even something that looked a little like a custard tart.

"Are you... sure you can eat all that?"

"Of course I can. And you know, you're supposed to eat a good breakfast to give you energy for the rest of the day."

"If you say so."

For awhile, they ate in silence. Or rather, Natsu ate and Zeref immersed himself in a large mug of fresh coffee while he observed the other customers.

Finally, Natsu polished off his sandwich and paused to fix his companion with an intense stare.

"So why have you been avoiding me?"

Well, that was blunt.

"I... haven't exactly been avoiding you."

"Yeah? What do you call it then?"

"..."

"I thought so." Natsu frowned at him, although it was more a thoughtful expression than an annoyed one. "I just wanted to let you know that I've decided that we're going to team up."

Zeref opened his mouth to protest, but Natsu cut him off.

"Listen, it doesn't have to be anything permanent. But you have to admit that it would be a relief if you could actually manage that power of yours without resorting to other tools, right? I mean, what if someone breaks that necklace of yours or something? Anyway, I think we can figure it out."

"But aren't you looking for a partner you can actually go on missions with?" Zeref asked, finding his voice. "That doesn't sound like a good use of your time."

"You can't waste time if you're helping someone," Natsu countered. "And anyway, I did say teaming up didn't have to be permanent, but that doesn't mean I'm not hoping it _will_ be. I have the feeling we'd be unstoppable."

"What good is it to be unstoppable if I lose consciousness and you go crazy?"

"Which is why we start by working on that," Natsu said patiently. "We'll just take things one step at a time."

"What if it's not possible?"

"We won't know until we try right? I'm not like anyone you've ever worked with before. No matter what happens, I won't quit halfway."

Zeref stared across the table at him. "But aren't you afraid?"

"Of what?"

Zeref opened his mouth then shut it again. He struggled to remember what some of the other Meisters had said.

"Of not being yourself anymore."

"What? No way. I've never heard anything that ridiculous. I know myself far too well for that." The grin faded briefly from Natsu's face, and he said seriously, "The good and the bad."

The solemnity left as quickly as it had arrived, and he added with a wry smile, "Anyway, the only thing I'm afraid of is not being able to protect the people I care about, and I've already sworn to myself that I won't let that happen."

"But if you keep trying to work with me, you might be the one who ends up hurting them."

Natsu laughed. "You need to have a bit more faith in your fellow academy students. They can look after themselves."

Apparently deciding that he had said everything he needed to, Natsu returned to finishing his breakfast.

Zeref sat in silence, watching him eat and thinking back over his words.

"_I know myself,"_ Natsu had said. _"The good and the bad." _

Funny, but Stein had said something similar to him back when he'd offered to try working with Zeref himself.

"_I know my own strengths and weaknesses,"_ the scientist had said. _"I'm pretty sure I'd be able to manage things eventually. If you're willing to try, that is."_

Was he willing to try? He hadn't been back then, but what about now?

Zeref looked down into the dark depths of his coffee. He tilted the mug, watching the way the sunlight reflected off its surface, then glanced back across the table.

"But Natsu, I think I might be afraid."

The last few bites of custard tart disappeared before Natsu answered. "That's understandable, all considered. And we don't have to try anything until you think you're ready. I just want to know if you're willing to eventually give it a shot."

Zeref weighed the options in his mind then said cautiously, "And if I say yes?"

A wide grin broke out across Natsu's face. "In that case, Loke had a few suggestions for us..."

.

**Moving **

Zeref didn't think there had ever been this many people in his small apartment at one time, not even when he'd moved in himself. He'd rented this place partly because it came fully furnished, so it wasn't like there had been anything heavy that he needed to haul up the stairs or move around. There wouldn't have been anything like that now either if it weren't for the second bed. To make room for it in the bedroom, almost all the furniture had to be rearranged. The desk had to be shunted into the living room, which also meant the bookshelves had to be shifted about some, and heaven knew how heavy all those books were.

How had he let himself be talked into this?

Maybe he would regret it less after all these people—some barely acquaintances, some total strangers—finally cleared out and he had his peace and quiet back again. As it was, after only five minutes of utter chaos, he had retreated into the hallway outside, choosing to leave the specifics of furniture arrangement to everybody else. He didn't care as long as his presence wasn't required and the end result wasn't too impractical. Instead, he sat down next to the railing where he had an easy view of the street below and tried to ignore the noise drifting through the open door.

Over the cacophony of thuds and clunks, he could hear Natsu arguing with a tall, rough-looking boy that Levy had told Zeref was her boyfriend. She had also said somewhat proudly that he was a bit of a musician and given Zeref an invitation to a club where his student band would be performing. Zeref had accepted the invitation to be polite, but he couldn't imagine himself actually attending.

Zeref looked up when a paper to-go cup appeared in his field of vision.

"It's coffee," Loke told him, "from the cafe on the corner. You look like you could use some."

Zeref accepted the offered cup with a quiet thank you.

"You also look like you think you might be making a mistake," the older student said, sitting down next to him.

Zeref glanced sidelong at him, hesitated, and said, "Natsu told me it was your suggestion."

"Well, sort of. It was Natsu's idea to move in with you. I think it's his solution to how you've made it so hard for him to track you down. My actual suggestion was that the two of you spend more time together and really get to know one another before trying to fight together again. Which is also why I'm out here talking to you right now. Not that they need my help in there anyway." Loke gave a small shrug before continuing, "I was thinking about your... situation, and I talked with some of the teachers and—well, anyway, I guess that's not important."

He paused and cleared his throat, glancing away. He had all of Zeref's attention now though, and the dark-haired boy waited in curious silence for him to finish what he had apparently sought Zeref out to say.

Loke looked uncomfortable, and he took a large gulp of his own coffee before speaking again. "To start off with, I suppose I should clarify that I'm a Meister. You haven't really interacted with other students much in your time here, so you probably don't know this, but I stopped being able to work with my original Weapon partner some months ago and I haven't been able to work properly with anyone else since. My original partner and I had a huge fight about how she was treating a mutual friend of ours. Honestly, looking back, our disagreements had been building for awhile, but anyway... She went off by herself in the middle of a job. Some Weapons can fight completely on their own, you know, but it's rare because most Weapons find it really difficult to transform without a Meister to wield them. She was always really headstrong though. Anyway, she went off on her own and got really badly injured. Badly enough that her family demanded she return home, and she probably won't ever be able to fight again."

He stopped again, but Zeref didn't interrupt. This was obviously not an easy subject for the older boy to talk about.

"The truth is that I felt—still feel—really guilty about what happened to her, but... I also haven't forgiven her for the other things she'd done." A small, self-deprecating smile found its way onto his lips. "I think that's why I haven't been able to find a new partner. You know how the academy saying goes. _A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body_."

He took another gulp of his coffee then added, "I thought I should tell you, because I figured you're probably carrying around your fair share of guilt and other things like that. I can't exactly tell you that you shouldn't feel that way. I'm still dealing with these things myself. But I suppose my point is that it does eventually need to be dealt with. Sorry if this is all a bit confusing."

"No," Zeref said slowly, "it makes sense. Thank you for telling me."

"Yeah, well." Loke coughed and got to his feet. "No need to thank me. I don't know if it's actually good advice in the end, and maybe helping you out is one way to help myself out too. Who knows?"

Zeref watched him wander back into the apartment to check on the progress of the move then turned his head to look back down at the street. Whether it was good advice or not, it was certainly something to think about.

Zeref was still sitting in the hallway when all the extra help left more than an hour later. Natsu saw them off with a grin before returning to his new roommate.

When the wild-haired Meister stopped beside him, Zeref looked up and said, "You have good friends."

"Yeah," Natsu agreed before reaching out to ruffle the seated boy's hair—just because he _could_ and because part of him wanted to know if it was as soft as it looked, which it was. "And you know, they can be your friends too if you let them."

.

**Armory **

When Zeref thought about household decorations, this wasn't the kind of thing he tended to envision.

"Um, Natsu, what is all this?"

Natsu turned from where he was busy appropriating half of his friend's closet space to see what he was asking about. "Oh, those? They're practice blades. Made of wood and weighted to make them more realistic. I have to be at school if I want to practice with real, metal ones."

Zeref regarded the eclectic collection, not entirely sure what to make of the fact that they were all now hanging on the wall on what was now Natsu's side of the bedroom. He could identify several different types of swords, two or three different, bladed pole arms, a knife, a dagger, and even a battle axe of some kind. It would have made more sense to hang them in the living room, but with all the bookshelves out there now, there simply wasn't any room.

"Do you know how to use all of these?" Zeref finally settled on asking.

"Some better than others." Natsu made a face. "The teachers insisted I learn a few different fighting styles since I wasn't working permanently with anyone and had more free time than anyone else. Not sure what's so bad about having more free time than other people, but at least it's stuff I enjoy."

"Ah."

.

**Roommate **

It was... strange... to suddenly find himself living with a roommate. Even when he'd still been living at home, he'd spent much of his time alone.

Zeref had never been close to his parents. They had found him to be a strange child, altogether too thoughtful and too clever to be really childlike and with an obsession with the supernatural that they couldn't entirely condone. They hadn't been the only ones either, and once people got over being impressed with his intellect, he started making them just a bit uneasy. Normal children weren't supposed to read, let alone enjoy, historical documents and records. Normal children didn't write essays about the theoretical underpinnings of magic and why it worked. Normal children... Well, suffice to say that Zeref had never been a normal child.

The fact that he was a Weapon had not come as much of a surprise to him, not like it was for a lot of his fellow academy students. The day it had happened though, that was something he'd rather forget about. The point was that after that day, his parents hadn't been able to get him out of the house fast enough. They provided him with an allowance for his living expenses and he had his allowance from the school as well, so if he was careful about his spending, he wasn't too pressed for financial support. And as long as he kept doing well and didn't ask them for anything they didn't feel prepared to handle like having him back home with them again, his parents were happy to keep giving him enough to get by. Anything to make them feel less guilty about not asking him to visit or visiting him in turn.

In some regards, Zeref supposed he'd grown accustomed to loneliness.

When Natsu declared his intentions to move in with him—and immediately acted upon those intentions before Zeref could change his mind and refuse him—Zeref had expected his daily life to change drastically. To become more noisy for one thing, and possibly more hectic than he was comfortable with. To a certain extent, that turned out to be true.

Natsu dragged him out to dinner their first night under the same roof. He made it clear that he would, under no circumstances, allow the dark-haired boy to closet himself at home all the time, and he was determined to get his friend to try out some of the other popular student activities and recreational destinations in Death City when they weren't busy with classes and homework. Then the next morning, Zeref was startled out of sleep by a crash in the living room when Natsu accidentally knocked over a kitchen stool while going through his morning exercise routines. Of course, that was an accident and would not be a common occurrence, but it really brought home how different it was to not be the only person in the apartment anymore.

It took them a few days to settle into a routine.

They ate breakfast at home with Zeref doing most of the cooking. Natsu wasn't a terrible chef, but he tended to be an impatient one, which wasn't really conducive to creating good food. He helped with preparing the ingredients though, and cleaning up the dishes afterwards went much faster with two pairs of hands.

They walked to school together and then went their separate ways, Natsu to his classes and Zeref to the library or the labs where he was helping Stein analyze the items they'd brought back from the witch's phantom island. And when the school day was over, they lingered in the library for awhile before heading out to dinner at one restaurant or another. Natsu insisted they visit eateries popular with other DWMA students—"_so you have something to talk about with them_"—much to Zeref's chagrin. But the walks they went on afterward, meandering through the city as they took the long way home, were calming, and Zeref found himself relaxing into this new way of life with minimal reluctance.

Because when all was said and done, Zeref found that maybe he _liked_ these changes—or _would_ like them once he'd had the time to adjust.

He liked that when he woke in the middle of the night from a bad dream, he could turn his head and see someone else in the other bed on the other side of the bedroom. He liked cooking for two and actually putting some effort into making the food taste worthwhile with someone other than himself to give an opinion on it. He liked being able to talk to someone other than himself whenever he wanted, and he liked, too, the companionable silence when they were both working on something either for class or work.

Living with Natsu wasn't nearly as chaotic as he had half expected. Sure, Natsu was energetic and forthright with his opinions, but he could be patient and observant too. And now that Zeref literally wasn't going anywhere, he seemed content not to pry into his business until Zeref was ready to share.

Was this what it was like not to feel detached from everyone? He'd never had this kind of closeness with anyone, and Zeref hadn't realized before how much he'd been craving it. Maybe being a normal person with an average family would have felt something like this too. He'd just never had the chance to find out.

.

**Late Night Conversations **

"You mean you don't talk to your family anymore?" Natsu asked, brow furrowed.

Zeref shrugged, turning a page in his book where he was sitting on his bed. "Not really. We don't have anything to say to each other, and they don't really care to know what I'm doing."

Natsu's eyes narrowed in disapproval. "That's not right. They're your parents."

Zeref stilled. Suddenly, he was very grateful for Natsu's habit of playing music on low in the background when they were at home.

"They... were less than thrilled when I turned out to have Weapon abilities," he said carefully. "I don't blame them though, and you really shouldn't let it upset you."

"Why aren't you angry with them? It's not like you can help what you were born as. Hell, Weapon abilities are genetic, right? Which means you have to have gotten it from one of them."

Zeref glanced across the room to where the other boy was sprawled, reading a textbook for class. Or rather, he had been reading it before this conversation had started. For a moment, Zeref debated with himself. He'd never told anyone about the incident, but this was Natsu. It seemed only fair, and he was certain at this point that Natsu wouldn't think the worse of him for it.

Sensing his internal struggle, Natsu set down his book and looked over to meet his gaze.

Finally, Zeref said, "We found out that I had inherited Weapon abilities when we were out after dark this one time. My parents liked going to shows—operas, plays, concerts, and that sort of thing. They took me with them that time, and we got caught up in a fight on our way back to the car afterwards. It was late, and there was a bar close to the theatre, and I suppose several people got drunk and started a brawl. Anyway, we got caught up in it, and I got attacked. I think I was in shock, so I don't remember the fight that clearly, but... there was a lot of blood. I injured that man quite badly and scared a lot of people, my parents included."

"You were protecting yourself," Natsu pointed out.

Zeref shrugged. "My family and classmates already thought I was peculiar. Almost killing someone doesn't really improve one's reputation for strangeness. Because of my particular interests, some people even accused me of dabbling in black magic. If I had been a girl, I suppose they would have accused me of being a witch."

Natsu's scowl deepened, and he folded his arms across his chest. After a moment, however, he just sighed and said, "I guess people can be like that sometimes. At least here, you don't have to worry as much about that sort of thing."

Zeref blinked slowly and then nodded. "That's true."

The citizens of Death City were accustomed to the unknown and bizarre.

"I'm doing what I want to do, and the staff at the school are good to me. I really have no reason to complain."

Natsu thought this over. He didn't like it. There was something wrong about parents treating their child this way. But if Zeref wasn't upset by it, then there wasn't much point in pursuing the issue.

After a moment, Zeref ventured cautiously to ask, "What about you? Do you often talk to your parents?"

"Well, not that often really, but Dad calls now and then. He travels so much that it can be hard to find the right time, but he said he might be able to visit later this year. Maybe you'll be able to meet him. I don't really remember my mother."

Natsu paused then added more quietly, "I told you before that the main reason I came to this school was 'cause I like to fight, right? Well, I moved around a lot when I was younger, because of Dad's work. And I got into fights all the time everywhere we went."

"Because you were a stranger?"

"That was probably part of it. Honestly, I never really thought about why it happened." Natsu grinned a little crookedly. "I know it wasn't always for a good reason though. Sometimes, I just wanted to blow off steam, and there's something awesome about winning a good fight. I'm guessing it's a lot like when you're able to make something cool."

"I see." Zeref shut his own book and set it aside before looking across the room and asking, "Have you thought about what you want to do after this? After you graduate."

"Not really. I mean, I've still got at least two years, so I figure I've got time to sort that out. You?"

"Continue working at the school, I suppose," Zeref said after a moment. "I want to make things that will be useful to people and to the DWMA in the current unrest. I'll probably have to travel too, so I can search for and study old artifacts that might be of use. See if I can uncover more Magic Tools."

Natsu smirked. "Well, if studying Magic Tools requires you to visit different countries, I can help you out and show you around. Like I said, I've been to tons of places."

"Places where you had fights?" Zeref asked, amused.

"Hey!" Natsu exclaimed in mock offense. "I'm good at getting into fights, but I'm good at getting along with people too."

The other boy smiled, a small, fond tilt to his lips that brought an answering grin to his companion's face.

"I don't doubt it."

When they finally turned off the lights that night, Zeref found himself staring up through the darkness at the ceiling and thinking that if Natsu really meant it, traveling the world together... That would be nice.

.

**Classmates **

"Come to class with me today."

Zeref blinked and looked away from the coffeemaker. "Why?"

Natsu shrugged. "Just 'cause. I mean, you officially attended classes for only what, one day?"

"Two."

"Right. Two days isn't nearly enough time to have a proper feel for what being a regular student is like."

"But I'm not a regular student."

"But you'll be working with regular students," Natsu pointed out—quite reasonably, he thought. "And I'm a regular student. Well, mostly regular. It wouldn't hurt to experience it yourself, right?"

"You never know," Zeref said warily. "It might."

Natsu rolled his eyes. "All you have to do is sit there. You don't even have to talk to anyone if you don't want to. Nothing's going to go wrong."

So it was that Zeref found himself reluctantly trailing after Natsu into one of the academy's many small lecture halls with tiers of seats rising in a semicircle around an open space before the whiteboard at the front of the room. Wendy waved at them from halfway up the rows of seats, and the two boys joined her—Zeref less than thrilled at having other students seated in front of him, behind him, and to his left. At least no one tried to talk to him. He wouldn't have known what to say if they asked him any of the typical, new student questions.

Ten minutes into the class, however, and Zeref's anxieties were overridden by something else.

"Natsu," he said under his breath, both amused and exasperated, "you're the one who wanted me to accompany you today. Aren't you going to at least pay attention?"

"Ugh, but this is so boring."

"Important and interesting are not always the same thing, you know."

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu grumbled, but eventually picked up his pen and began to jot down halfhearted notes.

Zeref glanced over at his paper and occasionally pointed something out for him to write down. He knew what information was really important, after all. Halfway through the teacher's lecture, someone tapped Zeref's shoulder with their pen. The dark-haired boy started and turned his head.

"Hey, speak a little louder, will you?" the student behind him asked.

Only then did  
Zeref notice that several of Natsu's classmates had been surreptitiously trying to listen in on his suggestions. For a moment, he wondered if he should excuse himself and leave the room after all. Was it okay for him to be giving suggestions like this? But then, it wasn't like this was a test, so maybe it wouldn't hurt. And the teacher hadn't made any move to intervene.

So, after this brief deliberation, Zeref spoke just a bit louder, and for the first time that semester, almost all the students took diligent notes on history. Zeref wondered if he should be flattered that they thought him worth listening to or concerned about the quality of current DWMA students who couldn't pick out the important points of a lecture without help. Or perhaps, after he'd walked them through it, they would be able to start doing so on their own in the future. After all, if you just paid attention and thought about what the teacher was saying, it wasn't that hard to simmer it down into key points—at least Zeref didn't think so.

As the first class drew to a close, his tension slowly crept back. No sooner had the teacher left the room then Natsu's classmates were crowding around them, peppering them with questions. Natsu fended them off smoothly with the simple explanation that Zeref was also an academy student, but one doing independent study, and dragged Zeref out of there towards his next class before anyone could pry further.

The rest of the day passed in much the same way, although Natsu liked his later classes more and took notes in those without prompting. Then there was lunch, of course, which they ate with Natsu's friends in the school dining hall. Zeref listened to their banter while he made his way slowly through a bowl of noodles, and he found to his own surprise that he didn't feel nearly as awkward as he would have anticipated. Maybe it was because walking into a class full of strangers had been far worse, or maybe he was just settling into the idea of mingling with his fellow academy students since he'd been doing so for an entire morning and nothing terrible had happened.

And really, he had to admit that this had been a good idea. Not only was this a chance to learn about other students, it was a chance to learn more about Natsu. And as well as they had thought they'd begun to know each other before, perhaps Loke had a point and they'd really only just begun to scratch the surface.

.

**Workroom **

"Natsu, I'm going to visit one of the staff workrooms today to look at that scimitar the others brought back. Do you... want to come with me?"

Natsu was so shocked by the unexpected invitation that it took a moment for him to respond. When he'd recollected himself, he looked across the kitchen table, caught the other's gaze, and grinned.

"I can get out of the resonance practice this afternoon. I could meet you outside the library at, say, twelve? We can eat lunch with the others, and then I could join you."

Zeref nodded. "Okay."

Natsu had explored quite a bit of the school in his free time, but the academy building had all sorts of hidden passageways and secluded corners. It was rumored that there were even parts of the academy that shifted about from day to day, although no one could ever produce concrete evidence of this. It was no surprise, then, that he'd never been to the wing of the school that Zeref brought them to.

Like many of the school's other more secret facilities, the room in question turned out to be located underground down one of the many hallways that formed a virtual maze beneath the school. The room itself was huge with more than half of the rectangular space set aside for, Natsu presumed, testing inventions. The remaining area had cupboards and counters running along the walls and an island workspace along with two computers and a collection of boxes full of things that looked like they'd been bought in bulk from an arts and crafts store.

"Please don't touch anything without asking me first," Zeref said as Natsu wandered off to explore.

"Got it," the other boy assured him. "Guess some of this stuff could be kind of dangerous, huh? What are these empty doorframes for?"

The doorframes were tacked upon the far wall side by side. They would have looked like the typical home doorframe, made of plain, unpainted wood, except that neither of them had any doors in them and there were runes carved all along their edges.

"You know how Lord Death can travel through mirrors? I was thinking about that."

Natsu raised his eyebrows. "I'm not seeing the connection."

"I just thought it would be nice if ordinary people could travel more easily from place to place—between two different cities, for instance. Here." Zeref walked over to the doorframes and ran his fingers lightly over a few of the runes on each one. The empty space within the frames began to shimmer, kind of like the surface of a giant soap bubble. Then, with barely a pause, Zeref stepped through the doorframe on the left—and disappeared into the wall only to emerge from the doorframe on the right.

Natsu blinked, startled, then whistled. "Wow, that really is convenient. Hell, I didn't know you could make stuff like this that normal people could use."

"Well, it will _eventually_ be convenient." Zeref tapped the doorframes again to deactivate them and explained somewhat ruefully, "I still haven't managed to get them to work when the frames are more than ten feet apart."

Natsu's laughter accompanied them back to the work island where there was a flat, oblong box. Zeref unlatched it and flipped up the lid. The interior was lined with black velvet, dark enough that the gleam of the overhead lights upon the translucent green scimitar was easily visible.

The younger student immediately sobered and stepped up beside him to inspect the witch's blade. "It almost looks like it's made of glass."

Zeref nodded. "It's stronger than ordinary glass though, and it's always cold to the touch. According to Loke, the witch implied that she could—harvest—a fragment of someone's soul with it."

Natsu frowned. "Is that what those manikins were about? Wooden puppets animated by pieces of those townspeople's souls?"

Zeref shrugged. "Maybe. I'm not sure what happened with that town. Apparently, what we saw really was all just an illusion. The people who lived there died centuries ago."

"But I thought she said whatever she did wouldn't work if we were dead."

"That's why I said I'm not sure about the townspeople. It's possible that their situation was different. For all we know, they made an agreement with her in the past so that they could live on her island. Perhaps they really did all end up there after shipwrecks, and if they were all still young when they washed ashore..."

He trailed off, and they focused once more upon the unearthly looking blade.

"So what are you supposed to do with it?" Natsu asked finally.

"Figure out how it might work," Zeref explained, "and see if there are any recognizable signs left behind from it so we can look for other victims. Those two DWMA students were only effected for a short time, and we don't think the experience had any lasting, negative side effects. Other people might not have been so lucky and might need more specialized help recovering. Maybe try to find a way to shield people from similar tools in the future."

Natsu folded his arms across his chest, eyes narrowed as he thought. "Shouldn't we destroy it?"

"Once we figure out how," Zeref agreed. "I believe Professor Stein tried, but it's quite durable. Not to mention that a lot of things just pass through the blade like it's thin air."

"Right. I guess that would be a problem."

"I'm not too worried though. If we really need to destroy it, I'm sure Lord Death and Spirit could manage something."

Natsu seemed to remember being able to strike the ghostly blade when he'd been working with Zeref in the tower, but he thought better of mentioning it. Instead, he changed the subject to ask about other projects that his friend had worked on, and Zeref set up a computer for him so he could browse through them while Zeref himself got to work. It was just as quiet and comfortable as the library, but they were free to talk more without having to consider the peace of other library patrons. Aside from appreciating this glimpse into the kinds of things the other boy actually did, Natsu was quietly pleased that Zeref had thought to share this place with him. Getting out of regular classes for the afternoon was an added bonus.

.

**Outings **

"Natsu's really outdoing himself, isn't he?" Lucy observed, her copy of the restaurant's menu resting loosely in her hands as she gazed across the room full of tables and chairs at the two people seated by the windows in the corner.

Levy agreed. "He certainly is. I've seen them all over the city lately."

"There was that new sushi place I wanted to try," Lucy mused, ticking it off on her mental fingers. "That ramen place everybody likes to go to, and an ice cream parlor close to campus, if I'm remembering correctly."

Her friend made a face at that last one. "An ice cream parlor? At this time of year?"

It was late autumn, going on winter, and the outdoors in Death City had become distinctly chilly, especially in the afternoons when the academy students were usually out and about in the streets.

"I know, right?" Lucy shook her head. "Still, I'm glad they're having fun. Which reminds me, they've invited everyone to go bowling this weekend."

"Bowling?" Levy repeated. "I've never been bowling."

The shorter girl smiled. "Me neither, and I'm pretty sure Zeref's in the same boat."

"I guess it's going to be an interesting experience then."

They exchanged bemused glances and returned to trying to decide what to order. Really, it was nice to see Natsu enjoying himself this much. Lucy realized with a twinge of guilt that, after the rest of them had settled into their teams, they really hadn't had as much time for just hanging out and having fun. And even when they did all get together, there was a lot of what they talked about that related to their work. No matter how carefree he acted, it was difficult to believe that Natsu hadn't felt at least a tiny bit left out. No wonder he was enjoying having someone to do things with.

At their own table, Natsu was busy giving recommendations.

"The grilled salmon here is really good," he said, pointing out the item's corresponding picture in the menu. "So is the chicken potpie. You should try the chicken with mushroom sauce too. If we order the two-person special, we'll also get dessert—and a soup or salad."

"I only have one stomach," Zeref reminded him, amused. "It doesn't matter if this place serves the best food in the world. I can only eat so much."

Undeterred, Natsu turned his menu around to show Zeref the section that detailed the two-person deals. "Choose two things you like then. We can split them. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," Zeref agreed. Really, he didn't care a whole lot what they ordered. But if Natsu wanted them to sample as many different dishes as possible, he wasn't going to argue.

It was kind of funny when he thought about it, how much of people's lives revolved around mealtimes. And true to this observation, Zeref had noticed a distinct theme in Natsu's choice of recreational locations. They visited other venues too, of course. There was the play put on by the student drama club that they'd gone to see and the informal concert that Levy's boyfriend had participated in—it was crazy how much you could cram into a mere few weeks of time when you were really determined—but for the most part, the places Natsu took him to all ran a brisk business in food and drink. Zeref seriously doubted that food would ever hold the same value for him as it did for Natsu. Hell, he forgot to eat at all sometimes when he was busy and there was no one around to remind him. But there was something nice about the meals they shared.

"I hope the bowling alley has good pizza."

The musing comment tugged Zeref out of his thoughts, and he tilted his head in question.

"Why pizza specifically?"

"Because that's what I heard they serve." Natsu shrugged. "It's a good choice for a place that wants to host parties. Pizza's practically custom made for crowded events like that."

"If you say so."

Zeref hadn't attended enough parties to have an opinion on the matter. And when the weekend rolled around and he found himself in the vast room full of the clamor of voices, the thud of bowling balls dropping onto the polished floors, and the sharp clatter of falling pins, he wasn't sure he would be attending any more given the choice.

There were several other parties at the bowling alley, including at least two groups of other students. As the others set up the computer to keep track of people's names and scores, Zeref watched a teal-haired boy three lanes over throw a bowling ball with enough force to send it flying almost all the way down the lane. Unfortunately for the stranger, the ball missed the pins entirely, rocketing into the gutter on the left with a crash that made Zeref wince. A brief scuffle ensued in which the stranger attempted to go again even though it was no longer his turn, and then a girl with her pale blond hair drawn back in thin pigtails stepped up to take her shot.

A gruff call from Gajeel made him turn back to his own scattering of companions.

"Hey you, you want to go first?"

Levy elbowed her boyfriend in the ribs and whispered something, probably chiding him for being rude, but Zeref couldn't be sure.

"Um, I'd rather not, if it's all the same."

Gajeel shrugged. "Suit yourself."

A few minutes more, and the large screen overhead shifted to display a grid with the names of everyone in their party listed in the column on the left. The columns on the right were all currently blank, awaiting their scores for each round.

"Why am I going first?" Lucy shrieked when she saw the final line-up.

Levy coughed, looking embarrassed. "Sorry. I wanted us to go early."

"What? Why? This means we don't get to see any examples!"

Zeref settled into one of the colorful, plastic seats arranged in a semicircle before the computer console used to operate the scoreboard. He wondered a little guiltily if he should have volunteered to go first instead, but really, he was glad he'd get to observe how other people went about bowling before he was forced to attempt it himself.

Zeref looked away from the two girls when someone sat down in the chair beside him. He expected to find Natsu back with drinks, but instead, he found Gray, who had the hood of his jacket up and kept casting furtive glances towards the front doors.

"Pretend we're talking," he said urgently.

"About what?" Zeref asked, befuddled by this strange behavior.

"Anything. I just need to look busy and not out of place."

"Why?"

"You know how I originally thought I couldn't come today? Well, I told someone that, which is why she didn't decide to come today either. But I ended up not having to do that makeup assignment after all, so I thought I'd drop in on you all, and I think she might have spotted me out in the street. She's at the doors now, probably checking to see if I showed up after all, and I don't want her to know that I did."

"So," Zeref said, trying to sort through this convoluted explanation, "you're... hiding from someone?"

"Er, yeah, I guess you could put it that way. You haven't met her yet. She's Gajeel's Weapon partner, and she's, uh..."

"Obsessed with him," Natsu filled in, dropping into the chair on Zeref's other side and handing him a to-go cup. "The kind of obsessed where she makes him boxed lunches with food arranged to look like his face."

Zeref blinked. "Really?"

That was... creepy.

"Really," Gray confirmed with a groan. "I've never been so relieved to be a Weapon."

Zeref thought this over. "So that she can't insist on partnering with you?"

"And so we don't get teamed up by the teacher during practice for class," Gray agreed. "Anyway, pretend I'm not here, at least until Wendy and Loke get here."

"...I thought you wanted me to converse with you so you didn't seem out of place."

"Right. That."

Zeref shook his head. "Sometimes, you people confuse me."

Gray sighed, an aggrieved sound that seemed to indicate that he, too, had a difficult time wrapping his mind around all of their actions.

Natsu only laughed.

Honestly, Zeref was starting to like going on these small outings. He was even starting to get used to Natsu's friends, confusing or not, and he wondered if maybe he shouldn't have spent as much energy as he had in the past avoiding his fellow academy students. Then again, there had been so much gossip and speculation after the accident, and there was only so much being stared at he could stand.

No, Zeref decided after a moment's contemplation, listening to Natsu and the others discussing the merits of a coffee shop he and Natsu had tried last week. All of this had only been made possible by the fact that he'd ended up with this particular group of people at this particular time.

.

**Agreements **

"Okay."

Natsu blinked. "Huh?"

They had just switched off the bedroom lights for the night, although apparently, neither of them had fallen asleep yet.

Natsu had been thinking about a conversation from the day before. It had been after the bowling alley after everyone had already had a turn at the pins and were settling into the way the game worked. Lucy had mentioned seeing them at the diner earlier that week, and then Loke had asked them for their review of a bakery that specialized in festive cookies—something about placing an order for the upcoming holidays.

Somehow, that had led into a discussion of the various places Natsu and Zeref had visited since they'd started spending time together. The list was quite long, if not particularly varied.

"_Maybe you should take him to that Halloween amusement park that opened last year,"_ Levy had suggested, tapping her chin in thought. _"That's pretty different, and it's not that far from Death City." _

"_It's starting to sound like they're dating,"_ Lucy had commented with some amusement before going on to describe when she'd been to that same amusement park with some of her old friends from middle school.

It had been an innocuous enough comment, probably meant to be a bit of a joke, but it had gotten Natsu thinking. Mostly, it had gotten him thinking about the fact that he liked living with the other boy and didn't want to move out if the whole team thing didn't become a long-term arrangement. He'd wanted to find a Weapon partner so that he could go out on regular missions like his friends did—fight witches and monsters and that sort of thing. It had never even occurred to him to think about how such partnerships also meant living with someone. And he'd certainly never thought about how he might like or even want that.

"Okay," Zeref repeated, quiet but no longer hesitant, from the other side of the room. "I think I'm ready to start trying."

It took Natsu a moment to decipher this cryptic pronouncement and realize what the other boy had just agreed to. He should probably be ecstatic. This was what he'd been hoping for, wasn't it? Of course it was, and he _was_ a little excited, but... There was something else he had to straighten out first.

"You know," Natsu said, choosing his words with uncharacteristic care, "that even if this team thing doesn't work out, I'm not going to stop being your friend or something, right?"

"I know."

That was one reason Zeref had agreed to give this a try.

"Good." There was a pause, then Natsu added, "Which also means that, even if we don't team up, you won't kick me out of your apartment, right?"

Zeref smiled into the darkness, amused by the trace of relief in the other's voice. "Right."

He wondered how much of what he'd been thinking Natsu had been thinking too. Quite a lot probably, judging from what he'd just said. And it was interesting to realize that, although they were quite different, on some levels, they were quite similar too.

Maybe this really could work.

And if it didn't... Maybe that didn't have to be a bad thing either.

* * *

**TBC... **

* * *

**AN**: Thanks for the Weapon form suggestions. Yeah, I am seriously considering just going with a sword, since it's the only weapon I remember Natsu ever using too. I've been basing my choice of Weapon forms more on the Meister, whereas the particular abilities I've been basing on a combination of the magic both people use.

I actually also considered allowing Zeref to have different forms, but I double checked and that ability is supposed to be unique to Tsubaki's family and I don't want to contradict that. Anyway...

Happy New Year everyone:)

.


End file.
